24 LEPORIDjE. 



pose for the Irisli hare are: Fur above uniform dull reddish-grey ; tail whitish 

 above ; ears and tail shorter than head. 



" The description of colour which has been dra^^^l up does not apply to the 

 Irish hare at every age, and liere is an important difference between tliis and its 

 approximate species. The Lepus timidus sometimes, tliough rarely, becomes 

 white, like various other animals; the Lepus variabilis B.m\\ia\\y appears so at the 

 beginning of winter, throughout which it so continues. The Lepus Hibernicus, 

 on the other hand, assumes this colouring with age. This inference I was at first 

 inclined to draw from the fact, that it was only in preserves, or where they were 

 unmolested, that I remarked them to be parti-coloured, or almost pure white; 

 their enemies, where they are not protected, being so numerous, as to prevent 

 the attainment of their natural term of life.* To the same effect 1 have the evi- 

 dence of Mr. Adams, a most intelligent gamekeeper, who states, that hares 

 turned out young into a demesne, in the County of Do-\mi, and marked by 

 a piece being taken out of their ears, regularly became white in the hinder parts, 

 during the lifth spring ; in the sixth, this colour extended over the sides ; m the 

 seventh, they were all white but the head ; and in the eighth, he thinks pure 

 white. In all these stages but the last they have occurred to myself. In a park, 

 in the County of Antrim, he has made similar remarks, though without the pre- 

 cise datum afforded in the first instance. Here he judges from hares frequenting 

 particular haunts gradually presenting the white appearance just described, and 

 which I am inclined to believe is occasioned by a change of colour in the existing 

 fur. About the month of February, the whiteness of garb exhibited from the fifth 

 to the eighth year beguis to appear, and is borne through March and April, 

 when the annual change of fur takes place, and the white is thrown off for that 

 of ordinary colour. 



" In the Belfast Museum, there is a specimen (from Shane's Castle-Park, 

 County of Antrim) which retains the ordinary colour only on the upper portion 

 of the head and front of the ears, the tips, as in the Alpine hare in winter garb, 

 retaining their blackness. The entire of the remainder, except a small portion at 

 the base of the fore-legs, tinged with pale fawn colour, appears of a pure white ; 

 but, on close examination, exhibits along the back, and on the breast, unchanged 

 in colour, some long black hairs ;t the lips are whitish. 



" Within one week, in the month of October, 1829, I had the opportunity of 

 observing the three species of British hare in their native haunts ; the Lepus 

 Hibernicus about Belfast ; the Lepus timidus towards the base of the higher 

 Grampians, at Glenlyon, in the north-west of Perthshire ; and the Lepus variabilis 

 about the summits of the same noble mountahis. Of the Alpine hare, some 

 individuals, which were Ivilled in the last week of this month, had not, in any 

 degree, changed the colour of their dark summer fur, whilst, at the same time, 

 others were almost entirely white. ;|; The motion and general appearance of these 

 animals, when not much alarmed, their place of refuge being at hand, seemed 

 intermediate between those of the common hare and rabbit ; but when they had 

 wandered from the summits of the mountains, where no sheltering crevices of 

 rocks were nigh, and their strength was put forth by the pursuit of the shepherd's 

 dogs, they exhibited very considerable speed. 



* In the note by Mr. Bennet, of which part has been already quoted, it 

 is remarked, but without any reason being assigned for it. that the Irish 

 hare is " apt to become white, in winter, when kept in parks or other enclosures," 

 p. 128. 



t These " long hairs," which have been described as altogether wanting in the 

 Irish species, exist in every specimen I have examined, but are extremely few in 

 number, compared with those in the common hare. 



X Although I am well aware that there is often a considerable difl'erence in the 

 period at which individuals of the same species put on such a change, yet I 

 would suggest to the attention of persons who have the means of investigation, 

 to ascertain whether the Alpine hare be white, in winter, from the first year of 

 its existence. 



