STUDIES IN HARE LIFE 



prime condition in the summer months. One would 

 imagine that the brown hare should thrive well on 

 the fat pastures of the north of Ireland \ perhaps the 

 fact that the Irish hare already holds the field may be 

 adverse to the successful naturalisation of the former 

 animal. The brown hare has no incapacity for adapt- 

 ing its life to altered conditions. To my mind, the 

 success which has attended the introduction of the 

 brown hare into New Zealand is a very remarkable 

 fact. Who would have imagined that hares would 

 ever become numerous enough in our distant colony 

 to render the exportation of their skins to the mother 

 country a profitable undertaking ? Perhaps Irish 

 sportsmen are contented to possess the varying hare, 

 and have no ambition to see the finer animal natu- 

 ralised in their distressful country. Mr. Barrett 

 Hamilton, vvho is making a special study of the quad- 

 rupeds of Ireland, has been good enough to inform 

 me that some isolated attempts have been made to 

 establish the brown hare in his own country. He 

 says that the experiments that have been made have 

 so far proved disappointing. The brown hare cer- 

 tainly manages to exist in certain private parks in 

 Ireland, but it has not so far succeeded in extending 

 its range in that island as a truly wild animal. Though 

 absent from Ireland as an indigenous mammal, the 



