112 



THE ALPINE OK WHITE HAKE, 



SOMETIMES CALLED THE BLUE HARE. 



THE white hare inhabits many of our mountains. It is not 

 confined, like the ptarmigan, to the tops of the highest and 

 most inaccessible, but, on the contrary, is often met with on 

 grouse-shooting ranges, where there are few crags or rocks to 

 be seen. I have frequently shot it on flats between the hills, 

 where it had made its form like the common hare ; and 

 though I have more often moved it in rocky places where 

 it sometimes has its seat a considerable way under a stone 

 I do not think it ever burrows among them, as some suppose; 

 for, although sore pressed, I have never seen it (except when 

 hard hit) attempt to shelter itself, like a rabbit, in that way. 

 Indeed there would be little occasion for this, as its speed is 

 scarcely inferior to the hares of the wood or plain, and it 

 evidently possesses more cunning. When first started, instead 

 of running heedlessly forward, it makes a few corky bounds, 

 then stops to listen moving its ears about; and, if the 

 danger is urgent, darts off at full speed, always with the 

 settled purpose of reaching some high hill or craggy ravine. 

 If not pressed, it springs along as if for amusement ; but 

 takes care never to give its enemy an advantage by loitering. 

 I put up one, on the 16th of March 1840, when inspecting 

 the heather-burning on my moor, at Leny in Perthshire, which 



