88 MAMMALS. 



Col. Balfour (about 1875). There were ten or a dozen turned 

 down ; but some of these were found to have had their legs 

 broken on arrival, and may possibly have died. The rest, how- 

 ever, throve, and were often seen by the then tenants, two 

 brothers of the name of Harcus, who never disturbed them 

 during their tenancy, which ended about 1884. These hares 

 turned white in winter. In the Sagas it is related that 

 during the twelfth century Earl Harold went to Gairsay to 

 hunt hares. 



Lepus cuniculus, L. Rabbit. 

 Orc.=Cunmg (B. and H.). 



As early as 1693 Wallace talks of " Kabbets " as being abundant 

 in many of the islands. (Description of Orkney, pp. 12, 13.) 

 Low, in 1774, mentions them as especially common in Burray, 

 but adds that " the profit made by the flesh and skins of these 

 is by no means compensated by the damage they do in boring 

 the sandy grounds and subjecting them to blowing." 



Shirreff, in his work, 1 informs us that, in 1779, 36,000 

 rabbit-skins were shipped from Stromness. In Burray, a 

 Captain Sutherland had a rabbit-warren, and the Eabbits were 

 allowed free access to a field of turnips, as that gentleman found 

 that the roots never rotted from being broken by those animals, 

 nor did what remained prove less useful to his cattle. 



The following may prove of interest as showing what a 

 regular article of export these rabbit-skins were : 



In 1801, 9076 skins were exported; in 1802, 621 only; in 

 1803, 13,848; in 1804, 13,842; in 1805, 9744; in 1819, 25,980; 

 and in 1820, 25,080. 



Messrs. Baikie and Heddle, writing in 1848, also mention 

 that Rabbits are found in most of the islands, " existing in 

 thousands " in Sanday and Burray. These authors also make 

 mention of a " considerable trade " done in rabbit-skins, but 

 that the value of these so decreased as to be at last almost 

 unremunerative. At the present time the only island we know 

 of entirely given up to them is Eynhallow, where, in 1883, 



1 General View of the Agriculture of the Orkney Islands, 1814. 



