24 
LEPOKIDjE. 
pose fox’ the Irish hare are : Fur above uniform dull reddish-grey ; tail whitish 
above ; ears and tail shorter than head. 
“ The description of colour which has been drawn up does not apply to the 
Irish hare at every age, and here is an important difference between this and its 
approximate species. The Lepus timidus sometimes, though rarely, becomes 
white, like various other animals ; the Lepus variabilis annually appears so at the 
beginning of winter, throughout which it so continues. The Lepus Hibernicus, 
on the other hand, assumes this colouring with age. This inference I was at first 
inclined to draw from the fact, that it was only in preserves, or where they were 
unmolested, that I remarked them to be parti-coloured, or almost pure white ; 
their enemies, where they are not protected, being so numerous, as to prevent 
the attainment of their natural term of life.* To the same effect I have the evi- 
dence of Mr. Adams, a most intelligent gamekeeper, who states, that hares 
turned out young into a demesne, in the County of Down, and marked by 
a piece being taken out of their ears, regularly became white in the hinder parts, 
during the fifth spring ; in the sixth, this colour extended over the sides ; in the 
seventh, they were all white but the head ; and in the eighth, he thinks pure 
white. In all these stages but the last they have occurred to myself. In a park, 
in the County of Antrim, he has made similar l'emarks, though without the pre- 
cise datum afforded in the first instance. Hei’e he judges from hares frequenting 
particular haunts gradually presenting the white appearance just described, and 
which I am inclined to believe is occasioned by a change of colour in the existing 
fur. About the month of February, the whiteness of garb exhibited from the fifth 
to the eighth year begins to appear, and is borne through March and April, 
when the annual change of fur takes place, and the white is thrown off for that 
of ordinai'y colour. 
“ In the Belfast Museum, there is a specimen (from Shane’s Castle-Park, 
County of Antrim) which retains the ordinary colour only on the upper portion 
of the head and front of the ears, the tips, as in the Alpine hare in winter gai’b, 
retaining their blackness. The entire of the remainder, except a small portion at 
the base of the fore-legs, tinged with pale fawn colour, appears of a pure white ; 
but, on close examination, exhibits along the back, and on the breast, unchanged 
in coloui*, some long black hairs ;f the lips are whitish. 
“ Within one week, in the month of October, 1829, I had the opportunity of 
observing the three species of British hare in their native haunts ; the Lepus 
Hibernicus about Belfast; the Lepus timidus towards the base of the higher 
Grampians, at Glenlyon, in the north-west of Perthshire ; and the Lepus variabilis 
about the summits of the same noble mountains. Of the Alpine hai'e, some 
individuals, which were killed in the last week of this month, had not, in any 
degree, changed the colour of their dark summer fur, whilst, at the same time, 
others were almost entirely white. J The motion and general appearance of these 
animals, when not much alarmed, their place of refuge being at hand, seemed 
intermediate between those of the common hare and l’abbit ; but when they had 
wandered from the summits of the mountains, where no sheltering crevices of 
rocks were nigh, and their strength was put forth by the pursuit of the shepherd’s 
dogs, they exhibited very considerable speed. 
* In the note by Mr. Bennet, of which part has been already quoted, it 
is remarked, but without any reason being assigned for it, that the Irish 
hare is “ apt to become white, in winter, when kept in pai'ks or other enclosures,” 
p. 128. 
f These “ long hairs,” which have been described as altogether wanting in the 
Irish species, exist in every specimen I have examined, but are extremely few in 
number, compai'ed with those in the common hare. 
J Although I am well aware that there is often a considerable difference in the 
period at which individuals of the same species put on such a change, yet I 
would suggest to the attention of persons who have the means of investigation, 
to ascertain whether the Alpine hare be white, in winter, from the first year of 
its existence. 
