NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS. 269 



harriers or beagles, and coursed with greyhounds. Hence the 

 necessity for finding an extra number of contributors to the 

 volume ; and this should have suggested to the editor a modifi- 

 cation of the first sentence on the second page of his Preface, as 

 well as the substitution of the word " species " for " variety " in 

 the second sentence on that page. 



The first section of this volume on the natural history of the 

 Hare seems to us too sketchy, and not full enough of information. 

 Several points of interest are not touched upon at all. For 

 example, we find nothing said about the period of gestation, or 

 about superfoetation, on which Sir Thos. Browne has discoursed 

 so quaintly ; about the condition of the young at birth as com- 

 pared with young Eabbits ; about Hares burrowing and going to 

 ground ; about their carrying the young ; about the call of the 

 doe Hare to the young ; about their fondness for hawthorn berries 

 (Zool. 1867, p. 604), though holly berries are mentioned (p. 27) ; 

 about the change of colour in winter of the Irish Hare ; and 

 about the comparative weights of English and Scotch Hares. 

 Mr. Macpherson remarks (p. 6) that he has " not been able to 

 obtain the weights of Russian Hares." Some statistics on this 

 point will be found in ' The Field ' of Nov. 18th, 1893. On the 

 subject of varieties, melanism, and albinism, more might have 

 been said. Mr. Macpherson states (p. 48) that " a list of the 

 black Hares that have been killed in Great Britain would be a 

 very short one." He will find several mentioned in an article on 

 " English and Scotch Hares" in 'The Field' of August 29th, 

 1891, since which date others have been reported. For example, 

 a black Hare was shot near Newmarket on the 12th September, 

 1893 ('The Field,' Sept. 23rd, 1893), and another was killed at 

 Haverhill, Suffolk, in January last (' The Field,' Feb. 1st, 1896). 



The chapter entitled " The Hare and the Lawyers " is a very 

 meagre one, and affords no adequate view of the present state of 

 the law affecting Hares, a subject of much importance, which 

 should have been more fully dealt with. 



Mr. Lascelles in the succeeding section on Shooting has 

 some remarks on the Ground Game Act of 1 880, with which we 

 entirely agree. He says : — 



" Leaving out all questions of sport, it is difficult to see what good 

 has resulted to anyone from this unfortunate piece of legislation. 

 Never once have we heard a good word spoken for it, either by 



