Volume 22, Plate XXXI / Mammalia (Mammals)

White or Changing Hare

Lepus variabilis

Smaller than the common hare with proportionally shorter ears and hind legs and softer woolly fur, in summer reddish-brown and dull greyish-black above but changing through autumn until white in winter, with long blackish hairs on the back and a black-tipped ear. Common in the middle and northern Highlands of Scotland and parts of northern England, it dwells among fern, heath, and rocks without burrowing, descends to the valleys in winter, and is easily tamed.