74 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



moors are snow-covered much later than is usually the case in Cheshire, 

 and the white dress would be a distinct advantage to the Hares, but on the 

 milder bare slopes of these English moors it only tends to make them 

 conspicuous. When the Longdendale moors were snow-covered we have 

 crossed them without seeing a single Hare, though their tracks were visible 

 in the snow in every direction. Again, in summer the grey-brown pelage 

 makes them almost invisible, and we very seldom see any. This was not 

 the case this March, for the white spots on the hillsides were noticeable 

 from a great distance against the dark background of brown bracken, ling, 

 and millstone-grit rock, and they certainly were " the most conspicuous 

 objects in the landscape." The Hares were squatting at the entrance to 

 holes among the stones, or under the shelter of overhanging rocks, and, 

 when we approached, remained perfectly still, evidently instinctively 

 trusciiig to their protective colouration. They crouched when we got near, 

 laving their ears back, and allowing us to approach within a few j'ards. One 

 did not move nniil we were only six yards away, and another let us get 

 witliiti ten yards before it bolted. We stood within this short distance, 

 wat(hing their eyes following our movements, and we could see the wind 

 blowing the loose hair from their backs. The forms where they had been 

 silling were full of shed hair. 



If it were possible for the Hares to reason,* it must be evident that they 

 would oe conscious that their colour was not in harmony with their surround- 

 ings; but it seems perfectly plain that they had been taught by heredity 

 thai iheir safety depended upon their remaining stiil, and they had no idea 

 of any change of conditions.f It might be argued that in twenty years the 

 survival of the habit of remaining still for protection would have been so 



* R. Keaitoa (' Nature and a Camera,' p. 176) narrates a practice of the 

 Hare which he well describes as "like a reasoned action deliberately executed 

 to mislead prowaag enemies that track them by the scent left in their foot- 

 prints." — Ed. 



f A Woodcock has been observpd to reason under such conditions. Mr. 

 F. M. Chapman, of the American Museum of Natural History, New York, in 

 a lecture on ' Birds in Nature,' rem irks : — " That the Woodcock appreciates 

 the Vidue of its costume of brown and black is, he think'^, fairly proved by the 

 experience of a friend of his. Early one spring morning he found a nest of 

 this species occupied by oue of the birds. Appmaching the bird cautiously, 

 he mauaged to stroke its plumage without its taking fright, so great was its 

 faith in its protective colours. He also succeeded in taking a photograph 

 of the bir i, placiug the camera a few feet from it. Focussing was accom- 

 plished with difficulty, and only bj' usixiif the eye of the bird as a focal point. 

 Tiie picture is a veriiable puzzle. Tlie bird is invisible to most eyes, though 

 plain enougli when once distinguished. While the bird was sitting a slight 

 snow fell. The brown leaves which before had aided its concealment were 

 now covered with a white mantle, and the bird became a conspicuous dark 

 object against this snowy background. It now had no confidence whatever 

 in its colouring, and took wing as soon as a person appeared on its horizon." 

 —Ed. 



