LEPOUIDJ3— LEPUS TIMIDUS. 



291 



area. Fur below the surface faintly shaded with brown ; ears pale brown 

 in front, washed with whitish. 



No. 409 (Coll. S. I.), Sweden (Helsingland), January 29, 1847, ? (name 

 on label " Lepus variabilis Pall., var. borealis Nilss."). — White, with a few 

 black hairs intermixed, and a faint shade of brown below the surface. 



No. 772 (S. L), north of Scotland, January, 1855. — Middle portion of 

 the under-fur slightly tinged with yellowish-brown. Anterior surface of ears 

 yellowish gray-brown. 



No. 7 77 (S. I.), north of Scotland, January, 1855. — Middle portion of 

 fur of upper parts strongly tinged with yellowish-brown. Many black hairs 

 in the dorsal surface, giving a rather strong dusky-grayish tint to the whole 

 dorsal area, including the top of the head. Anterior face of ears black, 

 washed with yellowish-brown. Many reddish-brown and dusky hairs on the 

 feet, especially on the fore feet. 



No. 411 (S. I.), Sweden, March, 1846, ad. <? (name on label "Lepus 

 variabilis Pall., var. canescens Nilss."). — General color of the upper surface 

 reddish-gray; under fur plumbeous at base, then pale yellowish-brown. 

 Hairs white, many of them black-tipped. 



In Nos. 1587 and 5181 (S. I.), winter specimens from Newfoundland, 

 1030 (S. I), from Greenland, and 6H61 and 6962 (S. I.), from Fort Rae, 

 north shore of Great Slave Lake, the fur is pure white to the base. The 

 black spot at the tip of the ear varies greatly in extent in different speci- 

 mens, in some being reduced almost to obsolescence. 



"While at southern localities the winter pelage is more or less mixed 

 with brown, on the other hand the animal frequently remains permanently 

 white at extreme northern localities, as in Greenland (Fabricius) and Siberia 

 (Gmelin). Sabine states, "In some of the full-grown specimens killed 

 [on Melville Island] in the height of summer, the hair of the back and sides 

 was of a grayish-brown towards the points, but the mass of the fur still 

 remained white."* A specimen before me (No. 3284, Coll. S. I.), from 

 Arekamchichi Island, Bering's Straits, presents exactly this appearance, 

 although evidently an adult summer specimen. 



In young specimens, apparently but a few weeks old, the under fur is 

 plumbeous at base, then pale grayish-fulvous. The hairs are subterminally 

 tinged with whitish and narrowly tipped with black. A specimen from 



"Parry's [First] Voyage, suppl., 137. 



