LEPOEID^}— LEPUS SYLVATICUS. 341 



Nord-Amerikanische Haase". His description is detailed and precise, and is 

 unmixed with allusions to any other species. Yet Schoepf s description was 

 later almost universally cited among the references to L. americanus. The 

 L. americanus, however, of Erxleben, and the L. hudsonius of Pallas, as 

 previously shown, refer exclusively to the smaller Varying Hare of Hudson's 

 Bay, which for many years was the only species of Hare supposed to inhabit 

 North America south of the Arctic regions. Consecpuently, the L. americanus 

 of most authors previous to about the year 1840 included more or less vague 

 allusions to L. sylvaticus. Desmarest, however, in 1820, made the confusion 

 complete by describing (from Schoepf's account) L. sylvaticus under the name 

 L. americanus, although quoting references also to the Northern Varying Hare, 

 and extending its habitat to embrace the region west of Hudson's Bay, as 

 well as the more southern parts of the continent. His name was adopted 

 by Harlan and other American authors for this species ; even Dr. Bachman, 

 in 1837, in his first, article on the Hares, fell into the same error. He 

 promptly, however, corrected the mistake, and adopted for the species, really 

 up to this time without a scientific designation, the very appropriate specific 

 name of L. sylvaticus. In his second article on the American Lrporidte, 

 published in 1839, he brought the name more prominently forward, since 

 which time it has been in very general use. 



The only other rival name is nanus of Schreber, which even some 

 recent authors have still used in place of sylvaticus. Such a practice is, 

 however, wholly unwarranted, as most clearly and exhaustively shown by 

 Bachman in his later account of the species in Audubon and Bachman's 

 North American Quadrupeds (vol. i, pp. 179-188, 1849). Schreber's 

 description was compiled from previous authors, and in almost every detail 

 applies to L. americanus, and scarcely in any particular to L sylvaticus. 

 His account of its habits and distribution includes both those of L. americanus 

 and L. sylvaticus, he giving its habitat as extending from Hudson's Bay to 

 Florida. His figure, however, Professor Baird believes to be clearly that of 

 L. sylvaticus, but it bears really so little resemblance to either that it may be 

 safely ignored. Schreber's account is evidently drawn in part from Schoepf, 

 but largely also from Forster, Pennant, and Kalm. 



The Hare from the plains of the Columbia, described by Dr. Bachman 

 in 1837 as Lepus nuttalli, and regarded as " the most diminutive of any 

 species of true Hare yet discovered ", was undoubtedly but an immature speci- 



