1896.] NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHILADELPHIA. 371 



Lepus tschuktschorum (Xordquist). Bering Sea Polar Hare. Pis. VI, VII & 

 VIII figs. 3. PI. X, figs. 3 cfe -i. 



Lepus iimidus var tschuktschorum Nordquist, Vega Exped., II, 1883, pp. 84 

 -90; tigs. 8, 9, 10, p. 88. Type locality, Pitlekaj, lat. 67°, Ion. 173°, N. E. 

 Siberia. 



Geographic didribution. — Northwestern Alaska, from the mouth 

 of the Kuskoquim River, northward.'^ (Northeast Siberia.) 



Habitat. — Aboiiuding in the open coast country and in the inte- 

 rior open barrens of the river valleys ; seeking the shelter of 

 ravines and willow scrub in severer weather but often found at such 

 times in the open barrens. — Nelson. 



Color, — Adult summer pelage (No. 3,780, A. N. S.,Phila., Choris 

 Peninsula, Alaska) ; upper surfiices of head and body, blackish 

 smoke brown, becoming grayish-brown on the sides of body, neck 

 and head. iMedian line of back smoky-black, sparsely tipped with 

 dull tawny ; rump purer black. Crown to nape like median line 

 of back. Region around eyes, cheeks and nose dull rusty-black, 

 grayer on lower jaws and with a white orbital ring. Chin and fore- 

 throat, lower surfaces of limbs and feet, lower neck, chest, belly, 

 vent and tail, white. Lower abdominal region clouded by a faint 

 band of black hairs. Lower neck blackish-gray, suffused with 

 tawny. Upper limbs and feet tawny gray, the hind feet nearly 

 white. Median outer surface of ears sooty brownish-black, sprinkled 

 with dull tawny, tawny gray and black on the inner surfaces, and 

 white along the posterior borders ; tips of ears black with brown 

 and gra}' intermingled. Whiskers white. A few black hairs at 

 upper base of tail. A pinch of hairs from near middle of back, about 

 two inches from the vertebral line, shows the following color pat- 

 tern : under-fur coarse, grayish-white at base, brown or sooty at 

 distal end. Overfur black, with or without a subterminal brown 

 zone, intergrading into black spinous hairs, which form nearly 

 twenty per cent of the dorsal pelage. 



Winter, pelage (No. 13,887, Col. Smiths. Inst.,, St. Michaels, 

 Alaska), pure white, except extreme tips of ears, which are black, 

 ■with rusty-based hairs. Whiskers white. 



Cranial characters. — Total length of skull less than twice its 

 greatest breadth. Nasals very wide, flattened, nearly as wide ante- 

 riorly as at base, their greatest breadth more than half their great- 

 est (diagonal) length. Superior premaxillaries heavy, broad, reach- 



■29 



See Nelson, Rep. Nat. Hist. Col. Alaska, 1887, p. 271. 



