COLOUR IN BIRDS AND qUADRUPEDS. 227 



rounding ones seem to have been thinning and falling. This, then, is 

 undoubtedly the process of the change of colour in this large and in- 

 teresting species. 



Let us now examine how far other quadrupeds, subject to the same 

 mutations, differ from the above, in changing from the brown dress of 

 summer to their white clothing of winter, so much in unison with the 

 snows around them, and which, by concealing them from the view of 

 a host of enemies, is often the cause of their preservation. 



Lepus Virgmianus, Virginian or Northern Hare. This Hare, which 

 is an exclusively northern species, and not a resident of Virginia, seems 

 to have been not only improperly named, but very imperfectly described 

 by our naturalists. The habits, however, of quadrupeds and birds are, 

 in general, only alluded to in this article, so far as it may enable us to 

 throw some light on the subject now under discussion. I possessed 

 favourable opportunities of witnessing the semi-annual changes of colour 

 to which the Lepus Virginianus is subject; having in early life, whilst 

 residing in the state of New York, had several of this species in a state 

 of domestication, where they produced and reared their young. The 

 notes made twenty-two years ago were mislaid, but I have a pretty 

 distinct recollection that the following was the process. The animal 

 shed its white fur in spring. The hair, although yellowish, and soiled 

 by age and exposure, indicated no appearance of a change of colour 

 from white to brown, before dropping oiF. The new hairs came out 

 reddish brown, in which dress it continued till autumn, when the sum- 

 mer fur gradually dropped off, and the hairs composing the winter pe- 

 lage became visible through the rest. In four weeks the summer dress 

 had entirely disappeared. The new hairs did not, however, appear 

 pure white, but of a light iron gray colour, mixed with occasional white 

 and black hairs. Gradually the hair grew longer, and seemed to be- 

 come whiter, till, in the course of a few more weeks, the change was 

 complete. In this case, then, nature seems to pursue the same process 

 as in effecting the changes of colour in some birds, by a gradual blanch- 

 ing after the moult. It will be observed that in this species the hairs 

 are only white, although broadly so at the points, and not throughout 

 their whole extent, as in the Lepus glacialis. 



Lepus Americanus, American Hare. The changes of this Hare I 



VI. — 3 G 



