308 LEPORID^— LEPUS 



Le Lievre blanc of the French ; Der Schneehase of the Germans. 



The synonymy (apart from the first two items, which refer to the 

 species timidus) is that of the Scottish Hare, without reference to its 

 allies on the Continent; apart from the question of the use of the 

 specific names timidus and variabilis, which has been already explained 

 above on p. 251, it presents no difficulties. The animal is a fair 

 subspecies, being intermediate in size and colour between those of 

 Skandinavia and the Alps. 



It is unfortunate that Leach's name is barred for technical reasons. 

 In 1819 he remarked of a hare obtained during Ross's voyage that it 

 was very distinct from the common White Hare of Scotland {Lepus 

 albus of Brisson), and equally so from the Lepus variabilis of Pallas. 

 But it is evident that he did not understand the true relationships of 

 these animals ; they could not, indeed, be demonstrated until a series of 

 adults from the various European localities was brought together, a 

 work first accomplished by Miller. Hilzheimer, albeit his arrow was 

 shot at a venture, has priority, and the Scottish Hare must be known 

 by the name which he gave it. 



Local names: — See under the preceding species. The animal 

 rejoices in a number of names well known in books and too obvious 

 to need explanation, such as Alpine or Mountain, Changing or Varying, 

 Blue, Snow, or White Hare. 



History : — " White hares " must always have been well known in 

 the Highlands, and are mentioned as occurring in the Orkneys in the 

 twelfth and again in the sixteenth centuries (see p. 310). Zoologists, 

 however, appear to have been ignorant of their occurrence. They are 

 not definitely named in Gordon's History of the Earldom of Sutherland 

 to 1630, published in 1813; and have no place in Merrets' list 

 (1666), nor in Ray's Synopsis, although the latter naturalist was well 

 acquainted with the existing descriptions of Varro's Varying Hare, 

 which he records as being frequent in the mountains near Padua, 

 and having ears with black tips. Like Topsel (1658), he evidently 

 obtained his information from Gesner, but the latter's assertion 

 (p. 683) that he had heard of White Hares also in England, probably 

 refers to varieties of L. europcsus, two of which were mentioned 

 by Morton in his Natural History of Northamptonshire, 1712, 445. 

 A statement that there is an annual rent, consisting of two white 

 hares, at Sheffield, enjoined by ancient deed, is due to an error in 

 reading 39 Edw. iii., where the correct words are "duos leporarios 

 albos" = "two white greyhounds " (see Pegge's Anonymiana, 1818, 159.) 



It is probable that the first printed allusion to the Scottish Hare by 

 a British zoologist was that of Gilbert White, who wrote of it to 

 Pennant (letter xxvi., 8th December 1769): — "It pleases me to find 



