180 GLIRES. 
September we seldom failed to secure one during an evening’s stroll withagun. Though 
rather shy, they seldom ran far when surprised. In the woods they are not often seen, 
though we found them in the opening in the forest of the Volcan de Fuego known as 
Pajal Grande. Here they would lie out like Rabbits in any clump of bushes. The flesh 
of this Hare is excellent, and both in colour and taste something between that of a Hare and 
a Rabbit. ‘They do not, so far as we know, burrow in the ground. In San Gerénimo and 
Coban this animal is equally abundant, according to Mr. Sarg, plantations being their 
chief place of resort.” Inthe United States, Audubon and Bachman state that the young, 
six or seven in number, are deposited in a rather large nest, often composed of a species 
of Juncus cut into lengths, and generally domed over, with an entrance at one side*. 
Mr. Allen finds that the variation in colouring of this species is confined to the 
intensity of the tints. Of the series which he examined, “by far the most highly- 
coloured specimen is one from Mirador (near Vera Cruz), Mexico, in which the black 
[of the upper parts] is considerably more prevalent than in average specimens from the 
Atlantic States. The greyish area below is also more restricted and more suffused with 
brownish ”4. The same remarks apply to an example contained in Mr. Salvin’s Guate- 
malan collections in the British Museum. 
6. Lepus aquaticus. 
Lepus aquaticus, Bachman, J. Ac. Philad. vii. p. 119, pl. xxii. fig. 2 (1837, descr. orig."); Baird, 
Mamm. N. Am. p. 612’; Allen, Mon. N.-Am. Rodent. p. 364’. 
Hab. NortH America, from Alabama westward and southward ?.—Mexico, Orizaba 
(Sumichrast, Botteri, U.S. Nat. Mus.*), Sierra Madre (Xantus, ib.2); Yucatan, 
Merida (Schott, 7b.*). 
Like the last species, the Water-Hare or Swamp-Hare was first described by Bachman ; 
and he and Audubon have given the fullest account of its habits. According to them 
it isa still more aquatic animal than L. palustris, prefering “low and marshy places, or 
the neighbourhood of streams and ponds of water, to which it is fond of resorting. It 
swims with great facility from one little islet to another, and is generally found seeking 
its food in wet places or near the water, as it subsists on the roots of various kinds of 
aquatic plants, especially on a species of /ris growing in the water.” It is much fleeter 
of foot than the Marsh-Hare, but when pursued it almost invariably directs its course 
to the nearest pool or river. The young are said to be “frequently found in nests 
formed of leaves and grasses, placed in hillocks in the swamps, or in the hollow of some 
fallen tree”. Dr. Lincecum observes that in sugar-growing countries this Hare lives 
principally on the leaves of the canes, but that in Texas it feeds on various grasses and 
wild herbage ff. 
The Water-Hare is abundant in most swampy parts of the southern United States 
* Quadr. N. Am. i. p. 155. fT Tom. cit. p. 289. £~ Amer. Naturalist, vi. p. 771. 
