THE IRISH HARE 327 



to the Irish Hare by the then Lord Stanley, afterwards Earl of Derby, 

 President of the Linnean Society. He exhibited a specimen at a 

 meeting held 5th March 1833 {Trans. Linn. Soc, London, 17, 555), and 

 also provided Yarrell with specimens, whereby the latter naturalist 

 introduced the species to the Zoological Society of London on the 

 following 23rd July {Proc. Zool. Soc, 1883, 88). William Thompson, being 

 present at the meeting of the Linnean Society, stated that, although not 

 hitherto published, the differences between the hares of the two countries 

 were already well known in Ireland ; but that Irish naturalists regarded 

 the hare of Ireland only as a very distinct and well-marked variety of 

 Lepus timidus {i.e. of L. europcBus). 



In 1835, Jenyns, in introducing the Irish Hare as a variety of Lepus 

 timidus (which name he applied to L. europcsus), remarked that it 

 " might almost deserve to be considered as a distinct species." It was 

 not, however, until 1836 that the animal received its specific name 

 {hibernicus) in an unsigned article in Partington's British Cyclopcedia 

 of Natural History. This article antedates the first edition of Bell's 

 British Quadrupeds, the description in which is usually cited as the 

 authority for the species ; possibly Bell wrote both. The species was 

 accepted by E. T. Bennet in his edition of White's Selborne, 1S37, 128 

 (without a technical name), and by MacGillivray, who, in 1838, published 

 an excellent description of the animal taken from nature. 



In 1839, Thompson, "on a very minute examination of Scotch 

 and Irish specimens," published his agreement with Bell's conclusion 

 {Trans. Roy. Irish Acad., xviii., 260-271, i8th May 1838, reprinted in 

 Nat. Hist. Ireland, iv., 19-26, 1856). Thompson's paper, although he 

 ignores cranial characters, was for its date carefully drawn up, and it 

 might have been expected that his opinion would command attention, 

 formed as it was on the spot, and based on personal knowledge of all the 

 British hares. In 1840, however, Keyserling and Blasius dismissed 

 the species as not different when in summer pelage from L. variabilis, 

 although not whitening in winter. 



Thompson, perhaps influenced by Blasius, seems afterwards to have 

 changed his position (see Harvey's Fauna and Flora of Cork). In 

 1857, Blasius submitted that the Irish Hare might be a " Form der 

 warmeren Klimate," but he united it with the quite different hare of 

 southern Skandinavia. This lead had an unfortunate effect, and the 

 animal was subsequently regarded pretty generally by authors either 

 as a "climatic race," or its identity with L. timidus was taken for 

 granted. It was thus treated by Alston and Tomes, by Friedel {Zool. 

 Garten., xx., 311, 1879), and, more recently, by Lydekker and by 

 Johnston. It appeared as a species in Wood's Natural History in 1861, 

 and in a note in the Field oi nth July 1874, 31, T. E. Davies remarked 

 on its size, colour, and fineness and length of leg. In 1891 I suggested 



