216 THE MOOR AND THE LOCH. 



Mull I bagged ten and a half brace of grouse (every bird I 

 shot at), leaving off without a miss, and the very first brace 

 of bagged birds were a fair right-and-left chance. 



Although a number had died that year of disease, hares 

 continued plentiful enough both on Kames and North Bute. 

 We could generally each day kill as many as were convenient 

 to carry, and rabbits were again on the increase, after having 

 been nearly exterminated by hired warreners a few years 

 before. Alpine hares had been introduced from Argyllshire, 

 but. I never yet moved one, although my watcher saw a 

 couple at different times, after they had donned the snow- 

 white fur. I did not regret their scarcity, for on my previous 

 shooting they had swarmed into a perfect nuisance. You 

 could only shoot there in comfort by always giving them the 

 cut direct when they rose, and most certainly by refusing to 

 honour them with a gun salute. The pointers or setters soon 

 learned to follow my example, and were as callous to the 

 antics and vagaries of these hares as if they had been sheep. 

 When the grouse began to fight shy of our advances, we were 

 fain to scrape up acquaintance with the blue-coats now 

 putting on their wintry livery and with the aid of terriers 

 and retrievers could any day load a pony and his panniers 

 with them. 



It is the belief of some naturalist authorities that Alpine 

 and Irish hares are of the same species, and that any appa- 

 rent difference is caused by variation of climate. They main- 

 tain that, on the colder mountains of Scotland, the Irish hare 

 would grow white in winter, while the Scotch white hare would 

 retain the summer blue on the Irish plains during the sever- 

 est December and January snows. From close observation 

 of both, I entirely dissent from this theory. The Irish hare 

 is thinner in the fur, which has a dash of red very different 

 from the summer mouse-blue of the Scotch hare ; the body is 

 more lightly made for the limbs ; and having hunted them a 

 whole season on the plains of Boyle, I can vouch for it that 



