THE GUN AT HOME AND ABROAD 
under parts are pure white. The colour of the fur differs, however, in 
different latitudes, and at different seasons of the year, showing a tendency 
to become white in winter in northern latitudes, as observed by Linnaeus, 
while assuming a reddish yellow hue in the more genial climate of South 
Europe, where in winter its prevailing tint is grey. A great many geo- 
graphical varieties have been described, with separate names for each, 
such as Pyrenaicus, transylvanicus^ mediterraneus^ etc., but these distinctions 
are based merely on variation of size and colour, and it would be just 
as reasonable to classify human beings of whatever nationality by their 
stature and the prevailing colour of their hair. In animal life all the world 
over allowance must be made for the variation in size and colour effected 
by climate, soil (affecting the vegetation on which they subsist) and 
altered conditions of life.* 
Varieties . — Beyond the change which takes place in summer and winter 
it may be said that the Common Hare is not subject to much variation in 
colour, although at irregular intervals grey, sandy (or yellow without any 
black hairs), parti -coloured, white, and even black varieties have been 
seen and procured. At Tillyfour, in Aberdeenshire, and in the Isle of Mull 
a large yellow variety, with hazel eyes, and weighing about 10 lb., has been 
noticed. A grey variety of the Common Hare has been occasionally noticed 
in Norfolk, examples of which have been shot at Burnham, Sutton near 
Wells, near Cromer, and near Scole. Mr J. H. Gurney has reported a variety 
of the ordinary colour, but with a white face.f 
In January, 1865, a parti -coloured hare was killed near Salisbury. 
It was unusually white all over the face, and the hindquarters were of a 
silvery grey. Its pale colour could not be attributed to old age, for it was a 
young animal, weighing about 5| lb. On March 5, 1886, a hare killed at 
Stalham, Norfolk, was curiously marked by a large patch of white on the 
forehead, extending from the tip of the nose to the base of the ears, the 
remainder of the fur being of the usual colour. In October, 1882, Mr J. 
Whitaker, of Rainworth, near Mansfield, shot a hare which had three of 
her legs white as far up as the first joint, the fourth (a hind one) being white 
up to the body. 
Daniel, in his “ Rural Sports ” (vol. I, p. 446, and Suppl., p. 694), 
mentions several instances of white hares, and Scott, in his “ British Field 
*The small southern race of hare found in Spain, Lepus Mediterraneus, according to Mr Ahel Chapman, “weighs 
only five or six pounds, and is more brindled in colour and with warmer shades on shoulders and flanks than ours.” — 
Wild Spain, p. 353. 
\ Transactions of the Norfolk Naturalists Society, vol. i, p. 26. 
180 
