260 



Scientific Proceedings, Royal Dublin Socle ti/. 



lu the precediag pages I have nob dealt with the Iriah fossil remaias of 

 Hares, because I have no material, and such descriptions as have been 

 published are insufficient for my purpose. In his first account of the 

 mammalian remains from the caves of county Clare, Scharfl' says: — 

 " Compared with a modern skeleton of the Irish Hare, the Cave Hare was a 

 considerably larger and more powerfully built animal, yet the distinctive 

 characters of the Mountain Hare are retained. ... It would seem, therefore, 

 as if the Irish Hare has deteriorated in size and strength since it arrived in 

 this country." In a later paper, on the bones from the " Catacombs," he 

 states that all the humeri and femora were longer than those of the recent 

 skeleton ; while, on the other hand, " of ten complete tibise measured, four were 

 smaller than the recent tibia." Further : — " This fact seems to indicate that 

 the upper portions of both front and hind limbs have become shortened in 

 the Irish Hare in course of time, possibly owing to change of habit." He 

 gives the following measurements of some limb-bones from Newhall and 

 Barntick Caves : — 



These figures suffice to show that the fossil hare of Ireland had already 

 become differentiated from L. var. angUcus, and had already developed into 

 the comparatively small island-form, L. var. hibernicus. 



Conclusion. 



The variabilis group of hares has a circumpolar distribution ; and whilst it 

 ranges continuously throughout the more northern regions, isolated colonies 

 of it are found stranded far to the south in the mountains of central and 

 southern Europe. In Britain it inhabits the more mountainous parts of 

 Scotland ; and it lives throughout Ireland, from which latter country, as is 

 well known, Leptis europcBus is absent. 



' ScHAUrF, Trans. Royal Irish Acad., vol. xxxii., Sect. B, p. 199. 

 '^ Ibid., vol. xxxiii., Sect. B, p. 3?. 



