148 Merriam A New Cottontail Rabbit from Wyoming. 



white-tailed ground squirrel of the southern deserts 

 mophilus leucurus). 



The new Cottontail, which I take pleasure in naming Lepus 

 baileyi, after my companion, Mr. Vernon Bailey, is a northern 

 representative of the arizonx series, with which it agrees in the 

 large size of the ears and audital bulke! It inhabits the Upper 

 Sonoran and Transition Zones and ranges completely across the 

 lower parts of the Owl Creek Mts., which mountains separate the 

 Wind River Basin from the Bighorn Basin. On the north the 

 species follows the Bighorn Basin into Montana, and on the east 

 it was last killed by us on Crazy Woman Creek, a tributary of 

 Powder River in northeastern Wyoming. Southeast of Powder 

 River it was afterward obtained at Douglas by Mr. J. Alden 

 Loring. In the Wind River Basin we found it in company 

 with the short-eared Cottontail (Lepus nuttalli^ though the latter 

 seemed to be closely confined to the willow thickets along the 

 streams, while the long-eared species was found everywhere over 

 the sage and sarcobatus plains and on the open deserts. 



Lepus baileyi sp. nov. Wyoming Cottontail. 



Type from Spring Creek, east side Bighorn Basin, Wyoming. No. 56016, 

 9 ad., U. S. Nat. Mus., Biol. Survey Coll. Collected Sept. 17, 1893, by 

 C. Hart Merriam and Vernon Bailey. Original No. 4372. 



General characters. Size large ; coloration pale ; ears and tail very long. 

 Similar in general appearance to L. nuttalli, but paler, with much longer 

 ears and tail. 



Color. Upper parts pale pinkish buff, sparingly lined with black hairs ; 

 nuchal patch pale fulvous; rump narrowly grayish, lined with black 

 hairs'; ears like back, but terminal fourth bordered by black ; outer sides 

 of fore and hind legs pale fulvous ; fore and hind feet white or whitish, 

 with basal fur on outer side of feet more or less suffused with pale ful 

 vous ; pectoral collar (broad and full) and tuft on each side of inguinal 

 region pale buffy fulvous ; under parts white ; tail white, except a grayish 

 band on dorsal surface. 



Cranial characters. Skull similar to that of L. arizonte, but larger and 

 heavier, with decidedly larger teeth. Contrasted with L. nuttalli of the 

 same region, the skull as a whole is larger ; the audital bullse very much 

 larger ; the postorbital processes larger, broader, and more produced ante 

 riorly. 



Measurements. Type specimen: total length, 418; tail vertebrae, 50; 

 hind foot, 100 ; ear from base, 94. Average of 8 specimens from the Wind 

 River and Bighorn Basins: total length, 404; tail vertebrae, 55; hind 

 foot, 96. 



