Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 5 (1901).djvu/99

Rh detrimental to the Hares that either they would have been exterminated by their natural enemies, or that natural selection, through the instrumentality of their enemies, would have caused them to adopt the more protective summer dress much earlier. But it must be taken into consideration that these Grouse-moors are most strictly preserved, and that all the large predaceous birds and carnivorous animals are destroyed whenever they appear. Foxes are trapped in large numbers, and there are hardly any large Hawks. Thus the action of natural selection in regard to colouration is practically annulled, and there is nothing to influence any change. This is a clear case of what Mr. Marshall speaks about on p. 542, an "observation of the demeanour of protectively coloured animals, which find themselves, by natural accident or necessity, in an environment to which their colour is quite unsuited"; and the animals have not altered their habits, but adopted "their usual attitudes of concealment," and it appears to be an unmistakable example of "unreasoning instinct."

It was interesting to note how the Hares escaped when we got so close that they came to the conclusion that they were observed. Out of nine that we bolted, two ran into crevices in the rocks, two ran along the side of the hill, and five went straight uphill at a great pace. The visibility of the Hares may be understood from a remark in a letter from the late Col. Crompton Lees. He tells us that on his moors at Greenfield, Yorkshire, in March, 1893, his keeper from one spot on the hills counted over fifty Hares within range of his field-glass at one time.— (Bowdon, Cheshire).