216 THE BLUE OR MOUNTAIN HARE. 



occur between the rival bucks is indicated by the 

 tufts of hair that cling in patches to the ling-tips 

 during the Love Moon, and the creatures are, of 

 course, polygamous. 



FOOD. 



The strong teeth of the blue hare enable it to 

 eat almost any vegetable matter that comes its 

 way. It is less of a dainty feeder than is the 

 brown. I have known it to eat, or at any rate 

 to tear asunder, the cones of coniferous trees, 

 probably to obtain the seed, leaving the earth lit- 

 tered with husks, as does the common squirrel. 



GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS. 



The blue hare is nothing like so speedy, nor is 

 it so resolute in flight, as is the brown. A good 

 sheep-dog can run it down often without any 

 great resistance on the part of the hare. 



It is seldom indeed that a brown hare takes to 

 earth, whereas a blue hare will den up readily if 

 hard pressed seeking safety in a cranny among 

 the rocks or in a disused rabbit-burrow. A Perth- 

 shire keeper showed me several short burrows or 

 seats scratched in the peat, so shallow that one 

 could in every case reach the end with a walking- 

 stick. The keeper himself was most emphatic in 

 his belief that these shafts were engineered by the 

 hares as emergency tunnels, chiefly for shelter from 

 birds of prey, and he assured me that the hares 

 regularly used them as breeding-nests ; but this I 

 very much doubt. There seemed to be a lack of 

 evidence to prove that the burrows were not the 

 work of rabbits, taken possession of by the hares, 

 though the keeper had probably more grounds for 

 his beliefs than there were tor my scepticism. 



