THE COMMON OR BROWN HARE 263 



Strugnell). A " blue grey " leveret recorded by Warde Fowler {Field, 

 3rd February 1906, 182) was first seen in August. 



When the face is spotted with white, there may be in extreme cases 

 a white forehead (Gunn, Zoologist, 1866, 385) ; " face pure white" (Bury, 

 Zoologist, 1844, 789); or the head, ears, and part of the neck white or 

 grey (Clark-Kennedy, Zoologist, 1869, 1558). A breed of white-faced 

 hares was reported from Lincolnshire (Rudkin, Field, 12th February 

 1910, 290). In a specimen sent to the British Museum of Natural 

 History by Heatley Noble, from Carradale, Argyll, on 15th January 

 1907, the white spots, often found in other specimens at the bases of 

 the ears, meet at the nape, and the stripes from nose to ear are white, 

 as they are also ordinarily in some Continental sub-species (see R. L., 

 Field, 2nd February 1907, 183). So many individuals possess a 

 white spot on the forehead that a belief has arisen that this indicates 

 a buck, or one of a litter of four (see Cornish, Field, 14th May 1892, 

 704) ; as stated above, Drane considers white spots on the face a 

 mark of age. 



Pied, skewbald, or mottled specimens occasionally occur, the legs, 

 feet, back, or sides being affected (see Clark-Kennedy, Zoologist, 1869, 

 1558; ^\i\tak&x. Zoologist, 1887,233; ^'\c\\a\\s. Field, 12th April 1888, 

 547; Hunt, Field, 5th October 1895, 590; Tegetmeier, Field, 14th 

 October 1899, 640). 



There is a remarkable grey variety of both sexes, which has often 

 attracted attention, and which appears, at least in all thoroughly authen- 

 ticated instances, to have been observed only in autumn and winter 

 (specimens examined were killed between 6th September and 22nd 

 January). In this the normally ochraceous annulations of the hairs are 

 white, and throughout the body white replaces brown or rufous of any 

 shade wherever these occur in typical examples, and, in extreme cases, 

 there is lightening or reduction of the black portions of the coat. 

 This form has been recorded from, amongst other counties, Ross-shire, 

 Ayrshire, Oxford, Bedford, Berkshire, Suffolk, Dorset, Norfolk, and in 

 some districts would appear to be well known. Thus one or two are 

 said to occur nearly every season in Norfolk (Gunn, Zoologist, 1866, 

 385 ; see also Encyc. of Sport, 1897). 



This grey variety is strongly reminiscent and suggestive of winter 

 whitening, a process which occurs regularly in some of the Continental 

 sub-species of L. europceus. This fact, together with its prevalence in 

 those parts of England which are coldest in winter, and its restriction 

 to that season, suggest that it may be interpreted as a sporadic assump- 

 tion of a white winter coat. 



Local variation : — Hares vary in weight in different counties. 

 Thus Cocks finds that on the Berkshire downs they are heavier than 

 in Buckingham ; in Orkney they are, according to Millais, darker and 



