VOL. XVII, PP. 131-134 JULY 14, 1904. 



PROCEEDINGS 



OF THE 



BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON 



JACK RABBITS OF THE LEPUS CAMPESTRIS GROUP. 

 BY C. HART MERRIAM. 



The large white-tailed jack rabbit of the Northern Plains was 

 named Lepus campestris by Bachman in 1837. The type speci 

 men came from the plains of the Saskatchewan. Two years 

 later (1839) he described, under the name Lepus townsendi, a 

 closely related species from Walla Walla, on the plains of the 

 Columbia. Waterhouse, in 1848, united the two, placing 

 toivnsendi as a synonym under campestris. This course has been 

 followed by subsequent naturalists. 



An examination of the jack rabbits of this group in the col 

 lection of the U. S. Biological Survey shows that townsendi is a 

 strongly marked form of the campestris group, and that another 

 form, heretofore unrecognized, but here named sierrae, inhabits 

 the Sierra Nevada of California. The three forms, with their 

 ranges so far as now known, may be defined as follows: 



Lepus campestris Bachman. 



Lepus campestris Bachman, Journ. Acad. Nat. Sci., Phila., VII, Pt. 2, 

 349-352, 1837. 



Type locality. Plains of Saskatchewan. 



Range. Northern Great Plains from Plains of Saskatchewan southward 

 to Kansas, and from Minnesota westward to the Rocky Mountains. From 

 23 PROC. BIOL. Soc. WASH. VOL. XVII, 1904. (131) 



