PAGES OF HARE LORE 47 



parts.' ' It is noteworthy that white and pied hares 

 seem to be caught or killed almost invariably before 

 attaining their mature growth, so that the possibilities 

 of their transmitting their peculiar characters to de- 

 scendants is frustrated. It would not be safe, how- 

 ever, to conclude that white leverets of necessity 

 retain their unnatural garb after reaching maturity. 

 Changes in the colour of the pelage are naturally 

 effected by a shedding of fur in the brown hare. 

 Some years ago an old shepherd employed upon a 

 Southdown farm found five white leverets a day or 

 so old. He marked their ears with a pair of nippers, 

 as if they had been sheep instead of hares. Some 

 months later, a fine grey hare was shot in the same 

 locality, which on examination proved to be one of 

 the five ear-marked leverets, which had turned grey 

 on reaching maturity.- A curious pied leveret was 

 shot in Cumberland in 1884 l)y Mr. J. Parker. Its 

 body -was of the usual colour, but the forehead, 

 muzzle, sides of the head and forefeet were all 

 pure white. Another hare, presented to the Carlisle 

 Museum with the last named, by Mr. Parker, has a 

 curious appearance, being neither white nor brown, 

 but a compromise between them. 



' Zoologist^ 1889, p. 143. 

 ■' Field, Oct. 5, 1878. 



