5 riage be Ae ee ee 
64 MOSTLY MAMMALS 
is much milder, although the amount of whiteness assumed 
in that district is very much less than in the north. This 
seems to demonstrate the contention that temperature has 
little or no influence on the change, so far as season is 
concerned. 
That the animal has no control over the change from 
brown to white in autumn seems to be proved by instances 
referred to by Capt. Barrett-Hamilton, “in which variable 
hares transported from Scotland and from Irish mountains 
to southern and low-lying regions continued for some 
seasons to appear in the northern garb of snowy white- 
ness. This persistence of the habit of turning white, even 
in unsuitable ‘conditions, together with the lateness of the 
moult, resulted frequently in the curious spectacle of a 
mountain hare running about in all its conspicuous Arctic 
livery under the bright rays of an April or May sun. 
After a few years such imported hares, or more probably 
their offspring, ceased to turn completely white, and the 
breed assumed the appearance of the ordinary hares of 
the southern locality to which they had been transported.” 
It would, of course, be extremely interesting to ascertain 
whether such transported individuals ever do give up the 
practice of turning white in winter, or whether it is only 
their offspring that do so; but, in any case, it is clearly 
demonstrated that the habit is very deep-seated and difficult 
to overcome. 
Very curious is the circumstance that the mode in which 
the coat is changed in the variable hare at the two seasons 
of the year differs 77 ¢ofo as regards the parts of the animal 
first affected. On this subject, with one verbal change in 
the first sentence, I quote from Dr. Allen, who writes as 
follows :— 
“In the fall the change begins with the feet and ears, 
