214 THE BLUE OR MOUNTAIN HARE. 



hundred feet. Above that the territory is sacred 

 to the blue. 



Blue hares, on the other hand, observe no fixed 

 rule as to boundary. The heights are theirs un- 

 dividedly, but they are quite at home in the 

 valleys. Occasionally a very severe winter will 

 drive all the blue hares from the heights into the 

 sheltered lowlands, where they remain at river-level 

 intermingling with the brown. Particularly does 

 this occur along the Scottish coast, and it may 

 be well into spring ere the last of the mountain 

 residents find their way back into the mountains. 

 In such cases interbreeding often occurs, but the 

 offspring of such unions are evidently pukka 

 hybrids, for, so far as I know, no intermediate 

 strain has ever been established. 



The blue hare is not very much valued by 

 sportsmen. Existing as it does in the realms of 

 nobler game, it is generally regarded as vermin. 

 Systematic hare-drives are regularly organised in 

 the hills in order to keep the number of blue hares 

 within reasonable limits, and in some parts of the 

 Highlands it is no uncommon thing for as many as 

 a thousand hares to fall to six or seven guns during 

 a day's drive. For the table the blue hare is 

 regarded as inferior to the brown, but the quality 

 of its flesh is entirely dependent on the nature of 

 its food. A hare that has lived on heather and 

 similar mountain vegetation is not good to eat, 

 but one that has fed in the valleys is as good 

 as any other hare. The snowshoe rabbit of the 

 Canadian woods is quite unfit for human con- 

 sumption during the winter months, when the 

 animals live exclusively on the tough evergreens 

 and the bark of sapless trees ; but a spring-fed 

 snowshoe is excellent eating. 



