354 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OF [1896. 



paging of bis description of arctlciis. Dr. Allen further gave Leach 

 sole credit for this name and was induced, by the difficulty of spe- 

 cifically separating the American from the European Hare, to con- 

 stitute the former a " variety " of the latter, so as to make it stand 

 trinomially, Lepus timidus arcticus, (Leach). As I have already 

 attempted to show^ our American forms are quite distinct from 

 those of Europe, and the most proper formula for typical arcticus 

 north of Baffin Land is Lepus arcticus " Leach " Ross. In the 

 same paper I have described two new forms, Lepus arcticus bangsi, 

 representing the dark southeastern race of arcticus, and Lepus 

 grmnlandkns, a strongly characterized species which appears to be 

 peculiar to Greenland and Grinnell Land. To these is now added 

 a fourth, Lepus tschuktschoncm (Nordquist), from the west coast of 

 Alaska. 



A skin, without skull, feet or limbs, from near Great Slave Lake, 

 N. W. Territory, dated May, 1877 (No. 13,350, Sm. Inst.), and in 

 full summer pelage, indicates the existence of an interior geograph- 

 ical race, so much lighter in color than L. a. bangsi, as to indicate 

 that it should be separated under another name. The most diligent 

 search in this country, however, has failed to reveal another sum- 

 mer skin from that region, and the condition of the one in hand does 

 not warrant its use in this connection. 



GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION AND VARIATION. 



The American Polar Hares confine their habitats very closely to 

 the faunal areas designated by Dr. J. A. Allen'" as the " Barren 

 Ground" and "Alaskan Arctic." The most southern points of 

 their distribution yet recorded, beginning in the east, are Bay St. 

 George, Newfoundland (1. c.)," Solomon Island and Ungava, 

 Labrador (1. c.) ; Fort Churchill,'^ Fort Rae (1. c), Great Bear 

 Lake,'^ Yukon Valley and mouth of Kuskoquim River,'* Alaska. 

 A line connecting these points runs northwest from latitude 47° in 

 Newfoundland to latitude 57° in northern Labrador, thence directly 

 west across Hudson Bay to Fort Churchill, and northwest along 



9 Araer. Nat., 1896, pp. 251, 252. 



10 Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., 1892, PI. VIII 



"And. & Bach., Quad. N. Amer, 1846, I, p. 248, state it is reported from 

 Nova Scotia. Tliis is not authenticated. 



'-Richardson, Faun. Bor. Amer , iSliO, I, p. 221. 

 '3 Nelson, Rep. N. Hist. Alasita, 1887, p. 271. 

 "Richardson, 1. c, p. 222. 



