MAMMALS. 87 



however, to imply that in either case all the first importations 

 had not died out. 



In their work Messrs. Baikie and Heddle state that hares 

 existed only in Hoy and the Mainland in 1848. 



Mr. Moodie-Heddle tells us that, after their introduction to 

 some of the islands in Orkney, he has seen hares that almost 

 any one would have taken for a Blue Hare in summer coat j and 

 we ourselves were quite struck with the colour of the Eousay 

 hares ; they seemed darker, and had not that rich reddish brown 

 that they have on the mainland of Scotland. 



The same gentleman tells us that hares grow extremely 

 heavy, especially when newly introduced into an island. A 

 man, Guthrie, who used to drive the coach from Kirkwall to 

 Stromness, assured him that he knew of one killed on Wideford 

 Hill weighing 14 Ibs ! 



We saw plenty of Brown Hares in Hoy and the Mainland 

 in 1888, wherever they were looked after and the ground 

 was suitable. Tame cats, of which there are so many in 

 Rousay, are their greatest enemies, both there and on the 

 other islands. 



In a further note by Mr. Heddle he says the average weight 

 of hares in Orkney is 8 Ibs. They sometimes vary so much 

 in colour as to resemble L. hibernicus, locality, and not the 

 season, seeming to cause this. 



Lepus variabilis, Pall. White Hare. 



White Hares existed in Orkney at the commencement of, if not 

 even later than, the sixteenth century. In an old work, the title 

 of which is Descriptio Insularum Orchadiarum per me, Jo. Ben, 

 ibidem colentem, in anno 1529, is the following paragraph: 

 "Albi lepores hie sunt, et capiuntur canibus." Jo. Ben was 

 John Bellenden, Archdeacon of Moray. 



The foregoing paragraph refers to Hoy, and Barry has 

 inserted the translation into his History of the Orkney Islands. 



Mr. Moodie-Heddle informs us that the bones of this 

 species are still sometimes found in the " Picts' houses." 



The White Hare has since been re-introduced into Gairsay by 



