282 DELIBERATE INTRODUCTION OF NEW ANIMALS 



Hebrides (Lewis and Harris, Skye and Raasay, Mull, Islay 

 and Arran) it. has been introduced, for if it were ever native 

 in ttiese parts, the original breed, as on Hoy in the Orkneys, 

 has disappeared. Recent introductions to Hoy and.Gairsey 

 seem to have failed. 



On the mainland the artificial colonization of the Alpine 

 Hare has been more extensive and successful. A century ago 

 it was unknown south of the Forth, but from its Highland 

 home it has been planted on the uplands of the southern 

 counties. I n Manor Parish in Peeblesshire, Alpine H ares were 

 set free in 1834, and further colonies were planted in the 

 same county in 1846 and 1847; m tne Pentlands they were 

 set free in 1867 or 1868, and in 1861 or 1862 on Cairntable 

 on the borders of Ayrshi're and Lanarkshire. On this 

 mountain, Dr B. N. Peach tells me, they were so abundant 

 when he made a geological survey of the district in the 

 years 1867 and 1868, that they formed the staple food sup- 

 plied to the geologists by the hill shepherd. So congenial 

 has the Alpine Hare found these Lowland haunts that not only 

 has it held its own and increased vastly in numbers in the 

 areas in which it was placed, but it has spread into the sur- 

 rounding country, overrunning the counties of Renfrew, Ayr 

 and Lanark, in the first of which 300 have been killed in a 

 season on the Misty Law Hills. Spreading eastwards from 

 their Peeblesshire stations by way of the Moorfoot Hills the 

 Mountain Hare reached the Lammermoor Hills about 1860, 

 the Lauderdale moors in Berwickshire some four years later, 

 and the extension of the Lammermoors in east Haddington- 

 shire about 1880. A southward movement from Cairntable 

 colonized the Lowther Hills and Queensterry Hill in 1865, 

 and advanced until between 1878 and 1880 the southern 

 march was checked by the Solway, which was reached in the 

 neighbourhood of Kirkgunzeon and Criffel Moors to the 

 south-west of Dumfries. 



Now there is scarcely a moderately high hill within these 

 areas of the south country but has its colony of this interest- 

 ing relic of glacial climes. Not only has the Scottish 

 Mountain Hare (Lepus timidus scoticus] succeeded in colo- 

 nizing new districts in its own country, it has also been 

 successfully transferred to many English counties and to the 

 mountains of Wales. 



