MAMMALS. 
95 
In Caithness more abundant on the hills bordering Sutherland 
than elsewhere. 
About hares Mr. Houston writes : " White hares in my 
recollection were by no means so numerous in Caithness as 
in Sutherland, and my idea now is, that in the former 
county the brown and white hares were pretty evenly 
divided. Caithness is so very flat, the Alpine hare seems 
to like steep ground, or to lie near such any way. Even 
in Caithness the white hares seem to keep the more quiet, 
remote spots, and are not generally found on the cultivated 
or low flats." 
Lepus cuniculus, L. Rabbit. 
Common in the east. Scarce in the west, or at least very 
local. Common on Hand a, where they were introduced about 
eighteen or twenty years ago. Fairly common about the 
north shore of Loch Inver ; abounding on Eabbit Island (or 
Eilean-nan-ghael, the Island of Strangers), at the entrance 
of the Kyle of Tongue, but temporarily decreased there 
since the severe winters of late years. Old " Eobby Eoss " — 
an old residenter at Tongue — told Mr. Crawford that rabbits 
were introduced to Eilean-nan-ghael by Major M'Kay, 
brother to Lord Eeay, about seventy years ago. "We find this 
island, however, called " Eabbit Island" as early as 1792 in 
the Old Statistical Account of the county (vol. iii. p. 521). 
700 were killed in the Tongue woods in 1880-81. A 
single rabbit was known to frequent stony broken ground 
at Far-out Head, near Durness, in 1881-82. How did it 
come there? Over 12,500 are stated to have been killed in 
the county of Sutherland in the year 1880, but this return 
does not probably apply really to the whole county. 
Eabbits wander far up the straths on the east coast, and at 
one time there was a large colony near Loch Aricline, at the 
head of the Helmsdale Strath, which were nearly all killed 
by one severe winter; this colony, however, has now 
