CHANGE OF COLOUR IN ANIMALS. 75 



protracted somewhat beyond the usual time. If they came to 

 spend the whole winter with us, as some of their congeners do, 

 and then left us, as they do, in spring, I should not be so much 

 struck with the occurrence, since it would be similar to that 

 of the other winter birds of passage ; but when I see them for 

 a fortnight at Michaelmas, and again for about a week in the 

 middle of April, I am seized with wonder, and long to be 

 informed whence these travellers come, and whither they go, 

 since they seem to use our hills merely as an inn, or baiting 

 place. 



Your account of the greater brambling, or snow-fleck, is 

 very amusing; and strange it is, that such a short-winged 

 bird should delight in such perilous voyages over the northern 

 ocean ! * Some country people in the winter time have every 

 now and then told me that they have seen two or three white 

 larks on our downs ; but, on considering the matter, I begin 

 to suspect that these are some stragglers of the birds we are 

 talking of, which sometimes, perhaps, may rove so far to the 

 southward. 



It pleases me to find that white hares are so frequent on the 

 Scottish mountains, and especially as you inform me that it is 

 a distinct species ; for the quadrupeds of Britain are so few, 

 that every new species is a great acquisition.-)- 



* See note, page 36. The snow-fleck, plectrophanes nivatis, has been 

 separated from the genus emberiza by Myer, on account of the length of 

 its wings greatly exceeding those of other birds, which now form this 

 natural genus. Hence they are fitted for more extensive excursions. ED. 



f This is the Alpine hare, lepus variabilis, of British naturalists. Its 

 ears are shorter than the head, and black towards the tips ; the rest of the 

 body, dusky in summer, and white in winter. There appears to be a 

 correlative connection in the distribution of colour in animals as regards 

 temperature. In tropical regions, the colour of man and animals exhibits 

 more variety and intensity than in northern latitudes. In temperate 

 climates, animals, in general, suffer little change from the vicissitudes of 

 the seasons, although, in many cases, winter and summer clothing is 

 very different in some species. In Britain, the white hare is an instance, 

 whose fur is tawny gray in summer, but changes, in September or October, 

 to a snowy white. This remarkable transition takes place in the following 

 manner : About the middle of September, the gray feet begin to get 

 white, and, before the end of the month, all the four feet are white, and 

 the ears and muzzle are of a brighter colour. The white generally 

 ascends the legs and thighs, and whitish spots are observed under the 

 gray hairs, which continue to increase till the end of October; but still 

 the back remains of a gray colour, while the eyebrows and ears are 

 nearly white. From this period, the change of colour advances very 

 rapidly, and, by the middle of November, the whole fur, with the excep- 

 tion of the tips of the ears, which continue black, js of a shining white. 



