THE COMMON HARE 
turns much greyer at that season of the year, and partially white varieties 
of the brown hare have been frequently met with both on the Continent 
and in England, to say nothing of pure white ones. 
Writing of a grey variety of both sexes which has often attracted atten- 
tion, and which appears, at least in all thoroughly authenticated instances, 
to have been observed only in autumn and winter (between September 6 
and January 22), Major Barrett Hamilton remarks:* “ It is strongly 
reminiscent and suggestive of winter whitening, a process which occurs 
regularly in some of the continental sub-species of L. europceus [i.e. timi- 
dus\. This fact, together with its prevalence in those parts of England 
which are coldest in winter, and its restriction to that season, suggest 
that it may be interpreted as a sporadic assumption of a white winter 
coat.” So that, after all, Linnseus was not far wrong when he wrote of 
Lepus timiduSy ^^hyeme in frigidis niveusJ' For these reasons, therefore, 
to say nothing of the great confusion which must arise if the name timidus 
is transferred to the mountain hare, I remain, as I have always been, 
of the number of those who maintain that the Common Brown Hare 
should bear the Linnean name timidusy and that the Scottish or Mountain 
Hare should be distinguished as variabilis of Pallas, who thus named it 
in 1778. 
Although it may appear to some readers that a disquisition on nomen- 
clature is somewhat out of place in a work like the present, it seems neces- 
sary to make the above remarks in order to explain why the latest scientific 
names proposed for our British hares are not adopted by the present 
writer, nor, as he is well aware, by many other naturalists besides him- 
self. With this explanation, we may proceed to give some account of the 
species, and first of the Common or Brown Hare. 
Descriptive. — The genus Lepus includes about twenty species, which are 
restricted chiefly to the Palsearctic and Nearctic regions, although one 
{Lepus brasiliensis) is found in South America. The Common Brown Hare 
of Europe may be regarded as typical of the genus, and is characterized 
chiefly by the great length of the ears and hind limbs. It occurs throughout 
Europe except in the north of Russia. 
Colour. — Its fur is usually of a sandy colour, greyer in winter, inter- 
spersed with long black hairs, which, being set close along the dorsal 
surface, cause it to look darker on the back than elsewhere, the upper 
surface of the short tail and the tops of the ears being also black. The 
History of British Mammals, p. 363. 
179 
