1896.] NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHILADELPHIA. 373^ 



Plover Bay territory. Brandt^^ says that " Wossenessenski ob- 

 served the true form of Lepus variabilis iu Kaintchatka and the 

 coast provinces of Okotsk Sea, to be entirely white as far as the tipa 

 of the ears ; " but the reference is of little value except in regard to 

 the distribution and winter pelage of this hare in the maritime 

 provinces of southeast Siberia. Schrenck^* says the Amoor Land 

 hares are not separable from the Polar Hare of Europe except that 

 he regards the southern form as a variety of the northern, applying 

 to it the name canescens of Nilsson, in which the normal change 

 from the dark summer pelage to the white of winter presents an in- 

 termediate gray phase of coloration which is retained the whole 

 winter season. As we would naturally expect, from the known 

 character of the west Alaskan fauna, it furnishes us not only with 

 the largest of our American Polar Hares, but with the darkest col- 

 ored example of the whole group of Arctic Leporidce, I have yet 

 seen. 



* Nordquist's description of the Tscuktschee Hare leaves no room 

 for doubt as to its specific identity with the Alaskan animal.. 

 Owing to my lack of summer skins of this hare from Siberia it is 

 impossible to say whether the Alaskan animal is separable as a 

 darker race, though such a state of affairs is likely to exist. 



The elaborate table of measurements given by Nordquist confirms 

 my own conclusions regarding the great size of the Bering Sea 

 Hare, the relative shortness of its ears, the great length of the hind 

 foot and the strong peculiarities of the cranium. 



I am informed that this hare, in common with some other species 

 of the mammal fauna of these regions, is frequently known to cross 

 Bering Strait on the ice in the winter. 



Specimens examined. — Alaska, 3 skins, 4 skulls ; Siberia, 2 skins 

 (winter furs, without feet), 1 skull. 



^'Eeisen im Amur.-Lande, 1, 159, p. 1845. 

 ^^ Bern. Wirbelth. Nord. Eur. Kussl., p. 44. 



