LEPORIDiE— LEPUS CAMPESTRIS. 299 



gave it the name of Lepus campestris, quoting the descriptions both of Rich- 

 ardson and Lewis and Clarke, after having previously partially confounded 

 it with Harlan's L. virginianus. Two years later, Dr. Bachman redescribed 

 it under the name of Lepus Townsendi, from a specimen brought by Townsend 

 from the Walla-Walla, one of the sources of the Columbia River, supposing 

 it to be a species that never became white. Later, however (in Audubon 

 and Bachman's Quadrupeds of North America, vol. i, p. 30), he doubted its 

 distinctness from the L. campestris, having subsequently been assured that it 

 did assume a white dress in winter. Professor Baird, in 1857, with speci- 

 mens before him from the vicinity of Fort Union, in both states of pelage, 

 whence some of Audubon and Bachman's specimens were obtained, unhesi- 

 tatingly regarded L. Townsendi as a synonym of L. campestris. From the 

 labels on the specimens in the collection of the Smithsonian Institution, how- 

 ever, he seems to have later changed his opinion, retaining the name of L. 

 Townsendi for the long-legged, long-eared Prairie Hare of Richardson, and 

 restricting the name campestris to the representatives of L. americanus 

 received from the fur countries, as will be further noticed under the head of 

 that species. Professor Baird now, however, agrees with the writer that this 

 later identification of L. campestris is erroneous. 



The •history of L. campestris was more or less confounded by Harlan 

 with that of L. americanus, and later by Bachman, who first described it 

 under the name of L. virginianus, while God man confounded both this 

 species and the L. americanus with the L. ''variabilis'''' of the Old World. 

 To Dr. Richardson belongs the credit of first recognizing the subject of the 

 present article as a species distinct from L. americanus, and to which later 

 Bachman gave the name of L. campestris. 



Lepus campestris is at once distinguishable from the other species of 

 varying Hares by the great length of its ears and tail, and by the latter being 

 always white on both surfaces. It is of about the size of L. timidus, and 

 is hence much larger than L. americanus, and rarely assumes so white a tint 

 in winter as these two more northern species. From the other American 

 long-tailed, long-eared, and long-limbed Hares (L. callotis and L.californicus), 

 it differs in general color, in the white upper surface of the tail, and in 

 changing to white in winter. It also differs notably in the proportions of the 

 skull, as already noticed. 



Geographical distribution. — The most eastern locality whence this 



