304 LEPORIDiE— LEPUS 



long time, but may apparently be accelerated by the advent of 

 severe cold, if it occurs before its completion. 



In Eastern Siberia a male of L. ghiciganus had nearly 

 completed the change by the ist October (Allen, op. cit, 1903, 

 156). In Athabasca Lepus americanus begins to assume the 

 white coat about 20th September, and the process is finished 

 by 20th October, the young being earlier than the adults 

 {^x€<A^, North Amer. Fauna, No. 27, 1908, 203). In North 

 Europe there is much variability according to locality, but in 

 cold districts the winter coat may have been donned in its 

 entirety by the first week of October (Collett). In Scotland the 

 whitening starts in September or October, but is not completed 

 until the middle of November or the beginning of December. 

 In Ireland the blanching, when it occurs, advances in much the 

 same manner as in Scotland, but is extremely variable and 

 usually incomplete. It commences about November, progresses 

 at a gentle rate, and may rapidly terminate in cases of con- 

 siderable whitening within the first few days of December 

 {Proc. Royal Irish Acad, cit., 306). 



The order of change of the various parts of the body from 

 brown to white is not invariable, but, on the whole, both in 

 Europe and America, follows a fairly regular sequence. The 

 feet and legs, the grey parts of the ears and parts of the head, 

 are the first affected. Then follows the rump, and the white 

 area of the under-side creeps upwards, driving the line of 

 demarcation before it, until the brown of the back is ex- 

 tinguished, or remains as an island or islands. Portions of the 

 head may also remain brown. Although the above procedure 

 is more usual, some individuals, especially in Ireland, seem to 

 become gradually white all over, and pale spots often appear in 

 the middle of brown areas. In the spring the order of change 

 is reversed, the brown colour starting on the head and upper 

 back and working downwards. The black ear-tips never alter, 

 not even in the otherwise always white Greenland Hare, 

 probably because the hairs composing them are subject to a 

 single annual moult only ; apart from that the process of 

 incipient whitening in the Brown Hare seems to indicate that 

 brown shades whiten more readily than black. 



According to Collett, the wool becomes detached later than 



