3IO LEPORID^— LEPUS 



"drives" for its destruction. In one such drive at Logiealmond, 

 Perthshire, in November 1899, six guns killed 1289 in one day (Lascelles, 

 The Hare, cit. supra, 99 ; see also Harvie-Brown and Buckley's Moray 

 Basin), so that it is not surprising to find that its numbers have been 

 considerably reduced in many places. Under the artificial conditions 

 imposed by man its present distribution is very unstable ; it is under- 

 going extermination in one district, introduction in another; and, it 

 seems, therefore, unnecessary to give a detailed list of localities. 



On the whole it appears to be naturally {i.e., apart from the influence 

 of man) an increasing animal, and Scottish naturalists have more than 

 once alluded to a supposed newly acquired habit of descending to the 

 cultivated lands, or to those near the sea. Harvie-Brown and 

 Macpherson {North - West Highlands and Skye, 44) connect this 

 propensity with heavy falls of snow on the higher land, and Millais 

 {Field, i8th February 191 1, 330) with hard winters. The latter states 

 that in 1881, 1885, and 1894, large numbers of Blue Hares descended 

 from the mountains above the Tay in Perthshire, and some remained 

 " in the roughs and woods at river level for two and even three 

 seasons afterwards"; the result was a good deal of hybridism with 

 the Brown Hares. The same habit prevails at all seasons in the 

 Outer Hebrides where heavy snow-falls are rare (Harvie-Brown and 

 Macpherson, op. cit.). 



Wherever Blue Hares are now found in the Scottish Islands their 

 presence is due to introduction ; but, although there is little evidence, 

 it is not improbable that they were originally indigenous in the 

 Orkneys, as well as in the Outer and Inner Hebrides. There 

 are published records of their occurrence in Arran (Alston), Mull 

 (imported by Colonel Gardyne of Glenfora), where Irish Hares have 

 also been introduced (Harvie-Brown and Buckley), Islay (Pennant; 

 see under History), Skye (Harvie-Brown and Macpherson), and Raasay 

 (Macpherson). In the Outer Hebrides they are absent from Barra, 

 North Uist, and South Uist, are nearly extinct in South Harris, and 

 fairly numerous, although of poor appearance, in Lewis and North 

 Harris (Millais); in North Harris they have long been treated as 

 vermin (Harvie-Brown and Buckley). 



They are absent from the Shetlands, but, as stated above, there is 

 evidence that they were formerly indigenous to the Orkneys. Barry 

 (316) quotes a passage from the Sagas wherein Earl Harold is said to 

 have gone to Gairsey to hunt hares, in the twelfth century. In a 

 description of the islands written in 1529 by Jo Ben ( = John Bellenden, 

 Archdeacon of Moray), occur the words, referring to Hoy :— " albi lepores 

 hie sunt et capiuntur canibus"; and in 1684 Sibbald wrote: "In 

 Orcadibus reperitur, crinibus candorem nivalem referentibus." The 

 last note of the indigenous stock appears to have been that in 



