LEPUS 



301 



introduced in 1864, although a woodland species, is reputed to 

 have caused a marked decrease in the numbers of the 

 Newfoundland Hare, L. arcticus bangsi of Rhoades, and the 

 latter is stated to be now restricted to the highest and barest 

 uplands (Nelson, North Amer. Fauna, No. 29, 1909, 65 and 92). 



Winter Whitening :— Although the varying hares have gained 

 their name from the fact that in winter they don a white coat, 

 this peculiarity is not restricted to them, being found also in all 

 northern forms of hare. L. europcsus may also whiten in 

 winter, although not so readily as the varying hares. 



Various eccentric views prevailed amongst the older writers, 

 from Pliny, who attributed the whitening to the action of 

 eaten snow, to Pennant {Arctic Zoology, 1792, i., no), who 

 maintained that " these animals, at approach of winter, receive 

 a new coat, which consists of a multitude of long white hairs, 

 twice as long as the summer fur, which still remains beneath." 

 Richardson {Fauna Boreali- Americana, 1829, i., 218) thought 

 that " the change to the winter dress takes place by a lengthen- 

 ing and blanching of the summer fur " with a complete moult 

 in the following spring. Audubon and Bachman, writing of a 

 caged American stoat {Quadrupeds of North America, 1854, 

 62, etc.), arrived at the conclusion that the colour is lost or 

 regained after the spring and autumn moults, while Coues 

 {Fur-Bearing Animals, 1877, 123) assured himself that the 

 alteration might or might not be coincident with shedding of 

 the fur. Merriam {Vertebrates of the Adirondack Region) 

 believed that both in autumn and spring there is an actual 

 change of colour in the hairs, governed by the presence or 

 absence of snow, not affected by temperature, and occurring 

 independently of the moults. Von Loewis, writing {op. cit. 

 supra, p. 300) of Livonian hares, affirmed the vernal but could 

 not admit an autumnal moult ; Schwalbe, who worked on 

 stoats, attributed the changes to two moults. 



This was also the view of an anonymous writer in the Edin. 

 Philosoph. Journ. {ii., January to April 1820, 191). Of other 

 British writers, excluding Pennant's somewhat fantastic opinion 

 as quoted above, both Jenyns and Fleming (the latter of whom 

 examined the changes in a stoat, see Fdin. Encyc, art. " Hyber- 

 nation," 1817, xi., 387; Philosophy of Zoology, 1822, ii., 23) 



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