1890.] NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHILADELPHIA. 353 



tweea it and the hares of North America. A careful consideration 

 of the question induces nie to adopt the Scandinavian animal as 

 the type of L. timidus, from the fact that Linnteus' conception of 

 the Arctic Hare, when he wrote his original diagnosis, was based 

 primarily on those frequenting the localities near his Swedish 

 home.* 



Captain John Ross was the first author to publish a description 

 :and new name for the American Polar Hare.^ Owing to the fact 

 that he gave this animal the name " Lepus arcticus Leach," and 

 that Leach, a few pages further on, names and describes the same 

 specimen as " Lepus glacialls"* some confusion of synonymy has re- 

 sulted. Owing to the scarcity of the work in which these descrip- 

 tions occur, and to make the status of the case more clear, they are 

 herewith giveu.^ 



Later authors recognized the American Hare as distinct from the 

 European, but none of them, until Gray, in 1843, used the name 

 arcticus for it, but adopted Leach's later name, glacialis.^ In 1877, 

 Dr. J. A. Allen revived Ross' name on account of the priority of 



* Linna?us' 1758 description refers to Fauna Suecica, 1746, No. 19, p. 8. 

 »Ross' Voy., 1819 (2d [octavo] ed.). Appx IV, p. 151 (Written by Ross). 

 ^ Ibid, p. 170 (Under caption : " Desc. JV. Sp. Anim., Discov. * * * in 



Arc. Keg. by Dr. W. E. Leacli "). 



' Ross' description (p. 151, 1. c) is as follows : 



"Genus Lepus {Hare). 



"Species Le])us arcticus Leach. The only one of this species was shot in 

 lat. 73° 37^, on the west side of the Straits. It was nearly the same size as 

 Lepus timidns (the common Hare) ; the body was white, except that a few 

 solitary black hairs, longer than the rest, were dispersed over every part and 

 which appeared to be rapidly coming away ; the tips of the ears and the short 

 hairs within the ears were black ; tail short and white. It was shot on the 

 first of September. Another, shot by a Master of a Whaler, in May, at Hare 

 Island [Greenland?], differed very little from the above. Dr. Leach thinks 

 it to be very distinct from the common White Hare of Scotland ( Lepus alhus 

 Brisson) and equally so from the Lepus variabilis Pallas. See Appendix No. 

 V." 



Ross' reference to " Appendix No. V," is a mistake, as Leach's descrip- 

 tion comes in the latter part of appendi.x IV, page 170. It reads as follows : 



" Genus Lepus of Authors iHare). 



'' Species Glacialis. Albus, vertice et dorso pilis nigricante fuscis albo fas- 

 ciatis sparsis, collo lateribus nigricante abloque raixtis, auribus apice extremo 

 nigris. 



''This animal, which will neither agree with the iepn-s aZ^M.s of Brisson 

 nor the Lepus variabilis of Pallas, both of which are now before me, is of the 

 size of the common Hare {Lepus timidas and of a white color. The back and 

 top of the head are sprinkled with blackish-brown hair which is banded with 

 white ; the sides of the neck are covered with hairs of the same color, inter- 

 spersed with white. The extreme tips of the ears are tipped with black, in- 

 termixed with white ; the insides of the ears have a few black hairs mingled 

 with the white. 



" I am sorry that the skeleton (which would, in all probability, have fur- 

 nished a good specific distinction) was not brought home." 



* See Baird, Mam. N. Amer., 1857, p. 577 (foot note). 



