THE IRISH HARE 



345 



they may be termed, to bask in the sun/ their 'seats,' as they 

 are termed, being clearly marked. It is supposed that hares 

 took to this habit to escape from their chief enemies the eagles, 

 formerly abundant in these mountains. . . ." 



In the above quotation it is not implied that this hare may 

 dig its own burrow. That suggestion was, however, made by 

 S. G. Otway, who stated ^ that when introduced to the sandhills 

 of the Mullet of Co. Mayo, the hares found that to obviate 

 being buried by the sand during the storms of winter they 

 must needs burrow or leave the district. Accordingly they 

 made horizontal holes, perforating a high narrow sandbank 

 from side to side. Sitting at the windward entrance they faced 

 the storm, shifting their position backwards as the wind blew 

 the sand away. The above story savours of romance, but it 

 may well be founded on fact, since it is possible that the hares 

 occupied the deserted habitations of rabbits. It would not 

 be indeed surprising to find Irish Hares burrowing if placed 

 in exceptional situations and amidst scarcity of cover. During 

 the winter of 1911-1912 a number scooped out "forms" for 

 themselves in an arable field of clay soil at Kilmanock, and 

 lay with their backs sheltered by sometimes fully 6 inches 

 of excavation. 



This hare swims as well as its allies, and when frightened 

 ventures to face a branch of the tidal estuary of the river Suir 

 at Kilmanock, the width of which may be nearly a hundred 

 yards across near its mouth. The ears are then laid back as 

 when running at high speed, and lie close to the water. In 

 Connemara Mr Harding Cox''' found hares on the islands of 

 Lough Inagh, and they were always ready, if disturbed, to 

 cross the several hundred yards of often rough water inter- 

 vening between them and the mainland. The above records 

 relate only to frightened animals, but a friend of Thompson's 

 observed one of its own free will enter and swim across a 

 deep pool of a mountain stream, although a short way 

 lower down the crossing was easy. A remarkable instance 

 of swimming was that of a doe which, in order to attend to 



* Or, perhaps, to avoid the wet mud of the floor — see T. P. Tomes, Field, 

 25th January 1896, 139. 



^ Ann. Nat. Hist, v., 362, 1840. ^ pigi^^ 22nd September 1906, 540. 



VOL. II. Z 



