LEPORID^— LEPTJS SYLVATICUS ET VARS. 343 



Lepus nuttalli and L. artemisia were thus described from specimens 

 obtained from the same locality, and the former was undoubtedly based on a 

 young specimen of the form so currently known of late years as L. artemisia. 

 The locality of the original specimens of L. bachmani is conjectural, and 

 may have been either California or Texas, though probably the latter. Later, 

 the name was applied by Audubon and Bachman to the small Gray Hare 

 of the Texas plains, which is undoubtedly the same as the L. artemisia, 

 described a year later, although the specimens so designated by Professor 

 Baird more nearly approach var. sylvaticus. As noticed by Professor Baird, 

 the name nuttalli has a priority of two years over artemisia and of one year 

 over bachmani, the latter also preceding artemisia by one year. Hence it 

 unfortunately happens that, according to the strict rule of priority, the name 

 artemisia, which has become familiar as the appellation of the "Sage Rabbit" 

 of the plains, must give way to the less familiar one of nuttalli, the original 

 type of which was only an immature specimen of this now well-known 

 species. 



Geographical distribution. — Lepus sylvaticus (including its several 

 varieties) occupies the greater part of the southern half of the continent. In 

 the eastern part of the United States, its northern limit coincides nearly with 

 the northern limit of the Alleghanian fauna, or with the isotherm of 45°. 

 This isotherm seems also to form its northern limit in the interior, or west of 

 the Mississippi River. West of this point, it seems not to have been met 

 with to the northward of the northern boundary of the United States. 

 Variety sylvaticus extends from Southern Maine southward, throughout the 

 States east of the Mississippi to Florida and the Gulf coast, excepting per- 

 haps the more elevated portion of the Apalachian highlands. It also occurs 

 throughout the States adjoining the Mississippi, as far westward even as the 

 eastern portions of Nebraska, Kansas, and the Indian Territory, and also 

 throughout Eastern Texas and thence southward to Yucatan. In Middle 

 Kansas, or near the ninety-eighth meridian, it already begins to assume the 

 characters of variety nuttalli, which ranges thence westward to Oregon and 

 the Sierra Nevada Mountains, and southward from near the forty-ninth parallel 

 into the highlands of Mexico. Over the drier portions of Arizona and the 

 adjoining country, it passes into variety arizonce, and on the Pacific slope is 

 represented by variety auduboni. Variety auduboni extends along the Pacific 

 coast from Northern California to San Diego, in Southern California passing 



