1896.] NATURAL SCIENCES OP PHILADELPHIA. 351 



SYNOPSIS OF THE POLAR HARES OF NORTH AMERICA. 

 BY SAMUEL N. RHOADS. 



Owing to the extreme scarcity of specimens of skins and skulls, 

 with reliable data, of our American Polar Hares in the museums of 

 this country or of the Continent, no attempt has yet been made to 

 study this group in a comprehensive Avay. To this fact, together 

 with the prevailing opinion that the Arctic representatives of our 

 land mammal fauna retain their specific constancy throughout the 

 breadth of their habitat, the animals which form the subject of this 

 paper owe the neglect and consequent misconception of their rela- 

 tionships which have so long existed. 



Having occasion to identify a summer specimen of Polar Hare 

 from Alaska, recently presented to the Academy of Natural Sciences 

 of Philadelphia by Dr. Benjamin Sharp, I was led to a critical ex- 

 amination of the series in our museum. The subject proved of so much 

 interest that I secured the loan of some specimens from the Smith- 

 sonian Institution, which finally led to a general correspondence 

 with collectors in this country and in England, and the examina- 

 tion of a series of skins, skulls and alcoholic specimens of American 

 Polar Hares, representing over thirty individuals, together with 

 about fifteen specimens of Siberian and Swedish Polar Hares. Be- 

 sides these, I secured data from correspondents, which covered the 

 examination of nearly thirty more specimens, more than half of 

 "which were American species. 



Especial mention is due to the courtesy of Messrs. Goode and 

 True of the Smithsonian Institution, for their liberal assistance in 

 the loan of their specimens and furnishing of data. To Mr. Outram 

 Bangs I am indebted for a most valuable set of Newfoundland spec- 

 imens and the use of a set of drawings of the type skull of L. a. 

 bangsi, executed by Mr. Blake. Messrs. Walter Faxon of the 

 Museum of Comparative Zoology, William De Winton, of the Brit- 

 ish Museum, and Lud wig Kumlien, of Milton College,Wisconsin, have 

 also furnished me with timely aid in the loan and examination of speci- 

 mens and the use of private field notes and references to literature. 

 The illustrations on plates VI, VII and VIII, are reproductions of an 

 exceptionally fine set of photographs made by H. Parker Rolfe, of 



