Page:The Hare.djvu/29

Rh and Harvie Brown report that there are brown hares on several of the northern isles, viz. upon Hoy, Eday, Rousay, Shapinsay, the Mainland, and on South Ronaldshay.

The hare was introduced to the last-named island by Lord Zetland. There used to be some hares in Papa Westray, but the animals have been exterminated by the natives. Mr. Moodie-Heddle considers that some of the brown hares which are killed in Orkney bear an external resemblance to the blue hare in her summer pelage. The hares in question appear to be darker than the hares of the Scottish mainland, and lack the rich reddish-brown tint of the parent race. In Sutherlandshire, Caithness, and some other Scottish counties the brown hare occurs most frequently in the fertile straths and upon the alluvial plains, seldom evincing any desire to wander very far from the borders of the cultivated regions, in which she prefers to make a permanent residence. But the elevation to which the brown hare voluntarily ascends in this country still requires to be investigated. In the North of England the brown hare rambles all over the fells at her sweet will. Country folk will tell you that the hare which is bred upon the pastures of the mountainside is a larger-boned animal than her sister of the valley. If there is any truth in this tradition, the