THE BLUE OR MOUNTAIN HARE. 215 



The snow-hare has larger feet than the 'long 

 valley' hare, to enable it the better to skim the 

 drifts, and, needless to add, it is a much hardier 

 and more violent animal. 



BREEDING. 



Whereas the brown hare produces on an average 

 three litters per year, the season for the mountain- 

 hare is shorter, and it seldom, if ever, produces 

 more than two litters annually. What it loses in 

 this way, however, it makes up in the number of 

 young per litter. A brown hare may breed three 

 times during the year and produce a total of seven 

 young ; a blue hare may breed twice and produce 

 eight. For, whereas two or three kits per litter is 

 the normal number of the brown hare's brood, four 

 or five regularly occur with the blue. 



A brown hare may, certainly, have as many as 

 eight kits per litter, but hi that case she breeds 

 at the most only twice, possibly only once, in the 

 season. A blue hare may similarly have eight or 

 nine to the litter ; but even if the number mount 

 to ten, she is still fairly sure to produce her two 

 litters. Thus, not only on account of its hardy 

 disposition and the seclusion of the regions it 

 inhabits, but also on account of its fecundity, the 

 blue hare is better able to hold its own than is the 

 brown; and with the increasing rarity of eagles 

 and peregrines the reduction of its numbers is 

 almost undividedly in the hands of man. 



The mating activities of the blue hare occur 

 almost entirely by night. Very little seems to be 

 known as concerns this chapter of the animal's 

 existence. There is no particular reason to suppose, 

 however, that its mating customs differ widely from 

 those of the brown. That the same old fights 



