MAMMALIA RODENTIA. 269 



young of M. liudsonius and obeiisis possess the dorsal stripe ; but this is 

 at times cither very distinct in grown-up specimens or altogether wanting. 



CASTORINA. Bridges has communicated some insignifi- 

 cant observations upon the Myopotamus Coypus of Chili. 

 (Ann. of Nat. Hist, xiv, p. 54.) 



Trogontherium Cuvierii has been demonstrated as an extinct 

 Rodent animal by Owen, in his Brit. Foss. Mamrn. p. 184. 



ACULEATA. Reinhart has, in our Archives, S. 240, deter- 

 mined a new Coendou, Cercolabes Liebmanni. 



A distinctly new species from Mexico, yet one that does not belong, as 

 Reinhart infers, to the subgeuus Synetlieres, but from its rich coat of hair 

 and cranial structure must be placed in Sphinc/urus, from whose present 

 known species it differs too by its larger size. 



DUPLICIDENTATA. The identity of the Lepus hibernicus with L. variabilis 

 has now been decided. Blasius had already declared, after inspecting a 

 specimen of the Irish Hare, that it did not admit of being distinguished 

 from the variabilis. Thompson has now exhibited before the British Asso- 

 ciation at Cork specimens of L. variabilis from the Scottish Highlands, 

 and of the Irish Hare, and demonstrated by their external and internal agree- 

 ment the identity of the species. (Report of the thirteenth meeting of 

 Brit. Assoc. p. 68.) Now both Nilssou and Sundevall are inclined to re- 

 gard the two forms of Hares living in Scandinavia as separate species. 

 (Arch. Skaud. Beitr. i, S. 172.) Nilssou had previously, in the 'Illumine 

 rade Figurer till Skand. Fauna,' described them as two varieties, but now 

 places them under the following names : (1) Lepus borealis, 111., Fig. tab. 19, 

 becomes perfectly white in winter ; the tip of the ears only is black ; 

 the skin white or pale. (2) Lepus canescens, 111., Fig. tab. 22, becomes 

 blueish gray in winter, white below, the ears black at their apex and the 

 greater part of the posterior edge ; the skin gray. Suudevall here observes, 

 that he has for some years been in the habit of comparing a tolerable num- 

 ber of specimens of both kinds of Hares, and having found them to be so 

 constant in their characters that no transition could be traced from one to 

 the other, would therefore regard them likewise as two species. In L. 

 borealis the black of the ear-tip is about ten millimetres in breadth, and 

 extends only about half along the anterior, but not posterior, edge. In L. 

 canescens it is about twenty millim. broad, and runs down below the middle 

 of the posterior, and for about 1" upon the anterior edge. L. borealis is 

 found throughout Scandinavia, but is only an occasional visitant on the 

 Schonen plains ; towards the North it ranges as far as the Polar Sea. 

 L. canescens is the common species in Schonen ; is found with the former 

 in the whole of Gothland, becomes rarer northward, but is yet met with on 



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