man, stated that there was no doubt whatever about the interbreeding of the two species, but that the progeny was infertile.'[1] I may, perhaps, take this opportunity to express the hope that, if a reader of these lines should happen to have the good luck to come across an apparently hybrid hare, he will send it to the Natural History Museum, so that its credentials may be fully investigated by a professed expert. The opinions of amateurs are seldom, if ever, considered final in such difficult matters. But though sportsmen have not cared much to inquire whether hares interbreed, they are always interested in shooting a white or piebald hare.
A true albino combines the characters of pink irides and pure white fur. Such a hare is seldom met with. The late Mr. J. Gatcombe saw a specimen in the Plymouth market in the year 1885. It was a leveret, not a full-grown animal, and had been captured in North Devon. White hares have often been met with upon the Continent, but the colours of their irides are seldom reported. Certainly the term albino should be applied to such animals as exhibit pink irides exclusively. Mr. A. D. Bartlett urges that the term 'semi-albino' should attach to a white hare, or other animal, which has irides of the natural colour. Edward
- ↑ Zoologist, 1877, p. 101.
