394 THE ZOOLOGIST. 
crustacea (Krebsthiere). Beyond this the mountain is quite bare, 
nothing but lichens visible on the rocks. Amongst the highest 
vegetation we found our old friend the Hare comfortably 
established, not expecting to be disturbed by visitors in this lonely 
retreat. On the edge of arock lay a sheep, torn by an Eagle, a 
warning to friend Hare, whose flesh the king of the air prefers to 
that of any other animal. A German eye at once detected the 
difference in the creature ; the ears are shorter than those of our 
Hare, Lepus vulgaris, L. (= Lepus ewropeus, Pallas), the body 
less rounded, while the conspicuous white tail and red-brown 
colour of the back [owing to the absence of the black hairs so 
noticeable in our species] serve still further to distinguish them. 
When startled these hares did not run like ours, ventre-a-terre, but 
leapt or bounded away, in this respect resembling rabbits. How 
does Bell, the first to establish Lepus hibernicus, characterise it 
in his ‘ British Quadrupeds’? We cannot but be struck with the 
fact that such aremarkable animal should have remained unnoticed 
by scientific men until so late as the year 1833 (Thompson, vol. 
iv., p. 19). Jenyns mentions it, in his ‘Manual of British Verte- 
brate Animals,’ as a variety of Lepus timidus, with the observation 
that it is almost deserving of place as a separate species. Bell, 
however, makes the strange observation “It is certainly a very 
remarkable circumstance that it should have remained unnoticed 
until so late a period, and can only be accounted for by the fact 
that it is the only Hare found in Ireland, and that therefore the 
opportunity of comparison did not frequently occur.” I believe 
the true reason lies chiefly in the native indolence respecting the 
fauna of the country.t 
My friend, Prof. Ed. vy. Martens, writes me as follows from 
Berlin, Aug. 6th, 1868 :—‘ There is much confusion and disagree- 
ment amongst various authorities as to the European kinds of 
Hare. It is certain that Linneeus did not distinguish so carefully, 
and described all European Hares as timidus. The species 
which is now found in Sweden, especially in Central Sweden, was 
+ A passage founded in error owing to a misquotation, probably furnished second- 
hand, is here omitted as being likely to confuse the reader. It has reference to the 
condition of the young of the Hare and Rabbit when first born, and the writer of 
the article, after stating in regard to the Hare what applies to the Rabbit, and vice 
versa, proceeds to argue from these false premises,x—Ep, 
