HARES. ;>, 



kill quantities of pike wherever that voracious 

 fish has contrived to establish itself. As to 

 salmon, they rarely capture one of considerable 

 size, while the arch-enemy of the species, the 

 seal, Phoca ritnlina, has become quite a rare 

 visitor to the mouth of the Spey. I have seen M 

 greater number in one day off the Moy, in 

 Killalla Bay, than could probably now be observed 

 during an entire season on the southern side of 

 the Moray Firth. 



The common hare, Lcpns tiinidmt, is widely 

 distributed throughout the lower parts of the 

 country, and during the autumnal months is 

 perhaps more numerous among the gorse-covered 

 wastes and peninsulas, and in the alder woods 

 skirting the banks of the Spey, than elsewhere. 

 The blue, or mountain hare, Lt']>nx rttriiiliili*, is 

 not met with in this district, and is of unusual 

 occurrence even on the neighbouring heaths of 

 Altmoor and White Ash ; while in the highlands 

 of Banffshire it takes the place of its congener, 

 and is far more common than welcome in tin 

 deer forests of Glenfiddich and Blackwater. 

 When crossing the birch-clad glens and corries of 

 the former, the ever-watchful roe, Ccrrua c<i)ir<'- 

 lux, will occasionally spring up in the path of the 

 stalker, but that animal is so thinlv distributed 



