128 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



large black tip to the tail, and the upper parts of the head and 

 neck, which are of the normal colour.* The second is in the 

 collection of Mr. K. M. Barrington, at Fassaroe, Bray, Co. Wick- 

 low. It was killed near Ashbourne, Co. Meath, and is pure white, 

 with the exception of the tip of the tail, the forehead, and two 

 small spots on the back of the neck, f 



Possibly the explanation of the fact that whereas many Irish 

 Hares turn white every winter, the Irish Stoats do not do so, is 

 to be found in the different nature of the country inhabited by 

 the two animals. In Ireland it is chiefly, though by no means 

 entirely, the Hares which inhabit the bare and exposed mountains 

 that turn white, while the lowland Hares often keep much of their 

 summer colour all through the winter. The Stoat, however, being 

 a carnivorous animal, naturally keeps in winter to the more 

 sheltered and lower-lying districts, especially in the neighbour- 

 hood of farmyards, where its prey is more abundant, and hence 

 avoids the extreme rigour of the climate. In England and 

 Scotland, however, the winters are usually more severe than in 

 Ireland; hence the Stoat more frequently turns white there, 

 especially in the northern districts. 



We do not think it is necessary to give references to the 

 numerous occasions on which the Weasel has been reported from 

 Ireland, since the more important have been recently collected by 

 Mr. J. E. Harting.j Many of these are certainly due to the fact 

 that, as now shown, the Irish Stoat does actually closely resemble 

 the Weasel, and is not inappropriately called by that name,§ 

 ever since Giraldus Cambrensis, in his * Topographia Hibernica,' 



* ' Land and Water,' May 28th, 1892. f Id., June 4th, 1892. 



I ' The Zoologist,' December, 1894, pp. 450—453. 



§ The words of the late Col. J. J. Whyte, of Sligo, may be quoted to show 

 how perplexed good out-of-doors observers could be over Putorius hibernicus, 

 and what a large foundation in fact underlaid the frequent reports of the 

 occurrence of the Weasel in Ireland. Col. Whyte wrote (' Field,' July 11th, 

 1874) : — " I am aware that it is the right thing to say that we have no 

 Weasels in Ireland ; certes, I never saw an animal of the sort without the 

 black tip to the tail. Many of them, — I may say most of them, — however, 

 are so small that a man who does not profess to be a naturalist is left in 

 doubt whether he is not looking at a Weasel with a black tip." (The 

 italics are ours.) " I have one before me now, an old bitch, giving suck,^ 

 whose size is exactly that given by Bewick as that of the Weasel, — 7£ in. 

 from nose to tail ; tail, 2 in., brush, f in. I do not remember ever seeing any 

 bo small in England, though common enough here, as well as the larger size." 



