THE COMMON OR BROWN HARE 257 



ceive the quantity of turnips that they destroy." In Suffolk, at Sir 

 Thomas Gooch's in 1806, there were killed no less than 6000 (Blaine, 

 Encyc. of Rural Sports, 1875, S08 ; Shooting, cit. supra, 17). In much 

 later years 823 have been shot on one short December day in 1869, and 

 1217 during three consecutive days of November 1878, in different 

 localities. Of late years, however, the species has run considerable 

 risk of extermination where it has not the sanctuary of a big preserve ; 

 in many localities it has disappeared or is becoming yearly scarcer, and 

 in most it is described as decreasing. Still, big bags continue to be 

 obtained by sportsmen in favoured localities, and in 1902, in Cambridge- 

 shire, 1 100 were shot in a single day (Cornish, op. cit., 154-155). 

 Many coursing clubs also flourish all over the country, and in 191 1 

 there were 132 packs of harriers, oT which 40 were Irish {Field, 

 14th October 191 1, Suppl., xvii.-xviii.). 



This hare has a predilection for situations in which its favourite 

 food-plants are plentiful, and on such ground it is most numerous, as 

 well as heavier and more healthy. Millais mentions as favoured resorts 

 the fens of Lincoln, the wild, open, sandy districts of Norfolk, Suffolk, and 

 Cambridge, the lowlands of Essex, and the great fields of Shropshire ; 

 and in Scotland, the border counties, the Earn and Tay valleys, Doni- 

 bristle in Fife, and the neighbourhood of Elgin and Forres. Cornish 

 {pp. cit?) thought that, considered as hare preserves, probably there is 

 in the south nothing quite like the marshes of Southminster, Essex; 

 Cliffe, Kent ; and Sudbourne, between Aldborough and HoUesley, 

 Suffolk ; but in such localities floods are sometimes very destructive, as 

 when the phenomenal high tide of 1898 drowned many hares at Orford. 



On the whole, this hare is to be found in artificial rather than in 

 natural country, in cultivated fields rather than on moors, in plains 

 rather than on mountains. But it is not absolutely restricted to these 

 more pleasant haunts. In North Wales, according to Forrest, it likes 

 high ground to over 2000 feet ; and in Scotland generally is found up 

 to about that limit. In the Moray area it follows cultivation far up 

 the glens (Harvie-Brown and Buckley). In the Edinburgh district, 

 although most numerous in the plains, it occurs in all the hill-valleys, 

 and in summer even encroaches on the ground occupied by the Blue 

 Hare on the hill-slopes (W. Evans). Millais has seen one shot at 

 2500 feet during a White Hare drive in Scotland, and has frequently 

 killed them on the hills above Pitlochry, Perthshire, at about 1500 feet. 



In the highlands and north of Scotland the range of the Brown 

 Hare has always been more restricted, owing to the comparative scarcity 

 of suitable ground ; but it is, or was locally common in many districts 

 to the extreme north of Sutherland and Caithness. 



It is hard to give a list of islands to which this hare is 

 indigenous, as it is so often introduced. It is present in Wight 



