17G THE ZOOLOGIST. 



Family Leporid^e. 



Lepas europceus, Pall. ; Common Hare. — Common and gene- 

 rally distributed. Hares have become scarcer in some districts 

 since the passing of the Ground Game Act. 



L. timidus, L., variabilis, Pall. ; Alpine Hare. — Bestricted to 

 the moors of the north-east, where it is abundant. Colonel J. 

 Crompton Lees, of Oldham, has kindly furnished us with the 

 following particulars of this species, which was introduced 

 originally on his shooting at Greenfield, Yorkshire. He writes, 

 under date June 29th, 1894: — " I believe fifty Blue Hares were 

 turned out altogether in or about the years 1880, 1881, or 1882, 

 and that they came from Perthshire. My keeper tells me that 

 last March, when, of course, they were white, he counted about 

 fifty as he sat in one spot. He used a pair of field-glasses. 

 Some time in the sixties we turned out some Blue Hares, but 

 they gradually decreased in number till they became quite extinct. 

 I am happy to say the second attempt has proved successful." 

 From Greenfield the hares have crossed the Cheshire border, and 

 are now thoroughly established, and very plentiful on the higher 

 parts of the moors in Longdendale, from Swineshaw, near Staly- 

 bridge, to Woodhead. In winter they sometimes come down 

 on to the lower ground, and, after a thaw, are very conspicuous 

 objects, looking like sheets of white paper scattered about the 

 bare hill-sides. A specimen in the Grosvenor Museum, Chester, 

 was shot on Featherbed Moss, about two miles above Crowden, 

 on November 17th, 1894. It scaled 4 lbs. 10 oz., and had only 

 partialy assumed the winter dress, although on the same day 

 that it was obtained one was seen almost entirely white. 



L. cuniculuSy L. ; Babbit. — Common. The black variety 



occurs sporadically, and is abundant in the large warrens at 



Lyme Park. 



(To be continued.) 



