LEPORID^3— LEPUS AQUATICUS. 365 



reddish-brown above, mixed with dusky. Ears exteriorly dark brown, pen- 

 ciled with black, white-edged on the anterior border, fulvous-edged on the 

 posterior border. Nape-patch reddish-brown ; orbital ring well marked, 

 whitish, varying to yellowish-white. Anterior and external surfaces of the 

 legs and feet chestnut-brown, of varying intensity in different individuals ; 

 inside of the same whitish, varying to pure white. 



The color varies in different individuals, as is usual in all the species of 

 the family, in respect to the amount of black on the dorsal surface, in respect 

 to the intensity of the brownish ground-color, and in the strength of the 

 reddish tint on the legs and feet. There is also about the usual range of 

 individual variation in size. Large specimens range in length, exclusive 

 of the tail, from 19.00 to 20.50 inches, thus nearly equaling the same meas- 

 urement of the largest specimens of Lepus americanus, but it is said to rather 

 exceed the latter species in weight. The feet are rather sparsely furred as 

 compared with most of the other North American species, but are much 

 more fully clothed than in Lepus palustris. The general pelage is rather 

 harsh and stiff as compared with that of L. sylvaticus and other northern 

 forms, but much less so than in L. palustris. Its coloration is nearer that 

 of L. sylvaticus than of any other of its allies, but its large size, and espe- 

 cially the large size of the head, serves at once to distinguish it from that 

 species. It is not only much larger than L. palustris, but differs conspicu- 

 ously from it in coloration, especially in the whiteness of the lower parts. 

 It agrees with L. palustris, however, in the general conformation of the skull, 

 especially in respect to the postorbital processes being solidly anchylosed 

 with the skull, and in the disproportionately larger size of the lower jaw. 



In the collection are quite a number of specimens from the provinces 

 of Vera Cruz and Yucatan in Southern Mexico. These differ from speci- 

 mens from Mississippi and Louisiana in no very marked degree. The brown 

 of the upper parts is in some specimens of a rather more fulvous tint, and 

 the chestnut-brown of the legs and feet is rather paler ; the anterior surface 

 of the hind legs being generally very light, sometimes nearly white. In others, 

 it is mixed with spots of pale rufous. There is also rather less black in the 

 dorsal surface. One of the Louisiana specimens also shows white mixed 

 with the rufous on the anterior surface of the hind legs, and one of the 

 specimens from Mississippi is nearly as fulvous as the Orizaba ones. 



A specimen labeled "Sierra Madre, Mex., John Xantus", with the 



