326 MONOGRAPHS OF NORTH AMERICA RODBNTIA. 



L. "campestris". Some of them, however, hear the partially-erased name L. 

 " americanus" of a prior determination. The skins, however, of these same 

 specimens, are still labeled L. "americanus" or L. "americanus?" whenever a 

 specific name is added, some being labeled simply "Lepus". The L. "cam- 

 pestris" of Hayden, referred to in his description of L. bairdi, belongs to 

 this northern form, as does also the L. "campestris Bachman" of Dall, given 

 in his nominal list of the Mammals of Alaska, as shown by his specimens still 

 in the collection of the Smithsonian Institution. 



Respecting this application of the name campestris, Professor Baird 

 writes me (under date of March 31, 1874) that he was "still not convinced that 

 the Lepus virginianus of Richardson refers to the Townsend's Hares of the 

 Upper Missouri. The specimens described by Richardson", he continues, 

 "are of course too imperfect to permit any satisfactory description ; and the 

 dimensions given are probably too large. It is entirely out of the question 

 for Richardson to have overlooked the occurrence of the northern variety of 

 Lepus atnericanus, as it is found everywhere, from Fort Garry northward, is 

 very common on the Saskatchewan, and constitutes a large portion of the food 

 of the Indians in the regions traversed by him. It is particularly abundant 

 about latitude 55°. In the many collections that we have had from the Hud- 

 son's Bay Territory, you will note the entire absence of any Hares resembling 

 the townsendi. If my supposition be correct, then, if you give a name to 

 the grayish northern form of the American Hare, that should be campestris, 

 and Townsend's name be retained for the big Missouri River species." 



As already noticed under the head of Lepus campestris, I consider Rich- 

 ardson's Tj. virginianus (subsequently named campestris by Bachman) to refer 

 beyond question to the long-limbed, long-eared, and long-tailed Townsend 

 Hares of the Upper Missouri, and can see no reason for presuming the meas- 

 urements given as "probably too large". Bachman certainly understood his 

 name to apply to a long-eared, long-tailed Hare so like what he later named 

 L. townsendi that he repeatedly states his conviction that they would prove 

 to be the same, he having been at first erroneously informed that the L. 

 townsendi never became white. As to Richardson overlooking "the north- 

 ern form of Lepus a)nericanus", he certainly did not do so, as he has described 

 it in detail under that name, and especially refers to its importance to the 

 Indians as an article of food, and their method of capturing this animal. 

 Furthermore, he distinguishes the L. virginianus as a prairie species, while 



