64 MOSTLY MAMMALS 



is much milder, although the amount of whiteness assumed 

 in that district is very much less than in the north. This 

 seems to demonstrate the contention that temperature has 

 little or no influence on the change, so far as season is 

 concerned. 



That the animal has no control over the change from 

 brown to white in autumn seems to be proved by instances 

 referred to by Capt. Barrett-Hamilton, "in which variable 

 hares transported from Scotland and from Irish mountains 

 to southern and low-lying regions continued for some 

 seasons to appear in the northern garb of snowy white- 

 ness. This persistence of the habit of turning white, even 

 in unsuitable Conditions, together with the lateness of the 

 moult, resulted frequently in the curious spectacle of a 

 mountain hare running about in all its conspicuous Arctic 

 livery under the bright rays of an April or May sun. 

 After a few years such imported hares, or more probably 

 their offspring, ceased to turn completely white, and the 

 breed assumed the appearance of the ordinary hares of 

 the southern locality to which they had been transported." 



It would, of course, be extremely interesting to ascertain 

 whether such transported individuals ever do give up the 

 practice of turning white in winter, or whether it is only 

 their offspring that do so ; but, in any case, it is clearly 

 demonstrated that the habit is very deep-seated and difficult 

 to overcome. 



Very curious is the circumstance that the mode in which 

 the coat is changed in the variable hare at the two seasons 

 of the year differs in Mo as regards the parts of the animal 

 first affected. On this subject, with one verbal change in 

 the first sentence, I quote from Dr. Allen, who writes as 

 follows : — 



11 In the fall the change begins with the feet and ears, 



