1896,] NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHILADELPHIA. 363 



la. Summer fur: ears black; hack and sides dark gray; 



rump blackish — bangsi. 



lb. Summer fur : ears grayish-black ; back and sides hoary 



gray, belly and vent pure white — (Interior subspecies ?) 



Ic. Summer fur : ears grayish-white ; back, rump and sides. 



white, sprinkled with gray ardicus. 



Id. Similar to Ic — grcenlandicus. 



II. Size very large ; hind foot 1| times as long as ear from crown. 



Tail dusky above in summer. Upper body fur in summer 



grayish or blackish-brown. 



2a. Summer fur : ears sooty brownish-black and gray, their 

 posterior margins, white; back blackish smoke-brown, 

 becoming grayish-brown on sides, rump darker — 



tschuktschoi'uni. 



Genus LEPUS Linna?us. 



Lepiis Linnaeus, Systema Naturae, 1758, p. 57. (Type L. tiniidus L.) 



1. Lepus aroticus '' Leach " Ross. Baffin Land Polar Hare. 



Lepiis arctictis'Ros?,, Ross' Voy., 8vo ed., II, 1819, appx. iv, p. 151. Type 

 from lat. 73° 87^, Baffin Land, southeast of Cape Bowen. 



Lepus glacialis Leach, Ibid ( Under Chap. 'Descr. N. Sp. Anim. Disc, in Voy. 

 to Arc. Keg.'), p. 170. (Same type). 



Lepus timidiis var. arcHcus, J. A. Allen, Mon. N. Amer. Rod., 1877, p. 288 

 (in part). 



Lepus arcticus " Leach " Ross, Rhoads, Amer. Nat., 1896, p. 252. 



Geographic distribution. — Northern Baffin Land and the Arctic 

 Archipelago ; intergrading southeastward into subspecies bangsi, 

 and south-centrally into a gray, pallid race. 



Habitat. — Open rocky barrens and tundras, preferring in sum- 

 mer the borders of thickets ; most abundant on rocky and hilly sea 

 coasts ; always avoiding the shelter of trees or bushes, but retreat- 

 ing to rock crevices for escape from an enemy. 



Color. — Summer pelage white, interspersed over back moie or 

 less sparsely with long, gray-black and brown-pointed hairs, but not 

 sufficiently to greatly alter the prevailing whiteness. Ears and face 

 grayer, with a tawny shade, the former with black tips. ^\^nter 

 pelage pure white everywhere, except tips of ears, which are black. 

 Summer pelage, in more southerly districts, darker, intergrading 

 into subspecies bangsi. 



Cranial characters. — Total length of skull twice the greatest 

 breadth. Nasals broad and flattened posteriorly, narrowed and 

 compressed anteriorly, their greatest breadth 2i times greatest 



