PAGES OF HARE LORE 45 



man, stated that there was no doubt whatever about 

 the interbreeding of the two species, but that the 

 progeny was infertile.' ^ I may, perhaps, take this 

 opportunity to express the hope that, if a reader of 

 these Hues should happen to have the good luck to 

 come across an apparently hybrid hare, he will send it 

 to the Natural History Museum, so that its creden- 

 tials may be fully investigated by a professed expert. 

 The opinions of amateurs are seldom, if ever, con- 

 sidered final in such difficult matters. But though 

 sportsmen have not cared much to inquire whether 

 hares interbreed, they are always interested in shooting 

 a white or piebald hare. 



A true albino combines the characters of pink 

 irides and pure white fur. Such a hare is seldom met 

 with. The late Mr. J. Gatcombe saw a specimen in 

 the Plymouth market in the year 1885. I^ ^^^^ a 

 leveret, not a full-grown animal, and had been captured 

 in North Devon. White hares have often been met 

 with upon the Continent, but the colours of their irides 

 are seldom reported. Certainly the term albino should 

 be applied to such animals as exhibit pink irides 

 exclusively. Mr. A. D. Bartlett urges that the term 

 ' semi-albino ' should attach to a white hare, or other 

 animal, which has irides of the natural colour. Edward 



' Zoologist^ 1S77, p. loi. 



