136 HISTORY OF THE EUROPEAN FAUNA. 



the northern islands, such as Saghalien, in the islands 

 of the Behring Straits, the Aleutian islands, and also 

 in Greenland and Spitsbergen. In Europe, it is found 

 as far south as the Arctic Hare, or perhaps even 

 farther, and it flourishes in the Alps up to a height 

 of 9000 feet. It offers a parallel to the Arctic Hare 

 in the fact that in some countries, such as Ireland, it 

 only rarely turns white in winter. The Irish form of 

 the Stoat differs so much from the English, that 

 Messrs. Thomas and Barrett-Hamilton are of opinion 

 that it is specifically distinct, as I mentioned in 

 speaking of the divisions of the British fauna 

 (p. 90). 



The Arctic Hare (Lepus variabilis] is almost the 

 only one of the typical Arctic mammals which still 

 inhabits the British Islands, and for that reason it is 

 to most of us more familiar than any of the preceding 

 species. Hares have been described from Green- 

 land by the name of Lepus glacialis, from the 

 European Alps as Lepus alpinus, and under other 

 names from Arctic North America; but though slight 

 differences in the fur and even in the skull can be 

 pointed out, there is no doubt that all these are only 

 varieties or races of what, in the British Islands, is 

 known as the Irish or the Scotch Mountain Hare, 

 Lepus variabilis. In the Arctic Regions this Hare 

 remains white throughout the year, but in Scan- 

 dinavia and some other parts its fur becomes brown 

 in the summer, and in Ireland it frequently remains 

 entirely brown during the whole year, and never, or 



