NOTES AND QUERIES. 149 



Co. Fermanagh, and offered with other birds and beasts by way of ransom 

 for an Irish chieftain who had been taken prisoner (Wilde, Proc. Roy. Irish 

 Acad., vol. vii. p. 187); and yet this bird, of course, was not indigenous to 

 Ireland, and the date of its introduction there was probably much later. 

 (' Essays,' pp. 305—307, 309).— Ed.] 



The Names of the Mole. — I cannot find that Marsvin (p. 104) is 

 actually used as a name for the Mole in any part of Denmark, and must 

 therefore regard its being given as a synonym in the dictionary as a mistake, 

 and the "mar" as Mr. Cocks rightly argues, must refer to the sea alone. 

 There is another small mammal, however, which is called a " Moor-pig " in 

 Denmark, that is the Water-vole, Mose-yris, and one would suppose that 

 the Mole has a better title to be called a Pig than the Vole. The latter 

 half of this name for the Vole is also the Lowland Scots for a Pig — grice. 

 [Compare also the Old English name for the Badger, viz. Gray — French, 

 gris. — Ed.] The Swedish for the Mole is, as Mr. Cocks points out, 

 Mullvad, but its last syllable bears very little resemblance to the Scottish 

 Moudie-(warp). Swedish is no doubt closer to Old Norse than is the 

 Dano-Norwegian, but Lowland Scots is much nearer Dano-Norwegian than 

 Swedish, and is nearest of all to the Jutland dialect. — Harold Raeburn. 



Irish Hare turning White in Winter. — I acknowledge that the state- 

 ment made by me, and referred to in Major-General Warrand's note (p. 104), 

 is not quite correct. I should have added — " The Mountain Hare remains 

 generally in its brown summer fur throughout the winter." In making the 

 statement I was guided chiefly by the experience of my friend Mr. Williams, 

 of Dublin, who tells me that he has received as many as forty Hares in a 

 winter from all parts of Ireland. His experience extends over a period of 

 about twenty years, and he remarks to me : — " So far as I have seen, there 

 is no change in the colour of the Hare in most winters, except in the event 

 of the cold setting in very early." He received no white Hares during the 

 late very severe winter, when the cold only set in after Christmas. The 

 whitest Hare he has ever seen is a specimen in the Dublin Museum from 

 Co. Wicklow. This, however, is by no means white all over, the whole back 

 and head retaining the brown summer fur. If both he and I should prove 

 to be mistaken, and the Mountain Hare really does turn as white in Ireland 

 as it does in Scotland, the best way to settle the question once for all would 

 be to send a white specimen to the Dublin Museum for future record.— - 

 R. F. Scharff (Science and Art Museum, Dublin). 



[The authorities at the British Museum (Natural History) would, 

 doubtless, also be glad to receive specimens of white Hares from Irelaud for 

 the National Collection. The evidence of Mr. Williams is good enough, so 

 far as his experience goes, but so also is that of Major-Gen. Warrand, who 

 states that "near Downpatrick, Co. Down, a very large number of Hares 

 are taken or killed every year, and a considerable number of these turn very 



