Merriam Unrecognized Jack Rabbits. 137 



Characters. Similar in general to L. texianus deserticola, but usually paler 

 and more yellowish ; size rather small for the texianus group ; color pale 

 buffy grayish with a yellowish tone ; back only slightly grizzled with black 

 hairs ; nape patch whitish ; face, particularly sides of face and neck, pale 

 buffy yellowish or yellowish buff, only slightly grizzled by dark hairs ; 

 pectoral collar pale yellowish ; black ear-tips not sharply denned below ; 

 thighs grayish clay color ; underparts white, with only a tinge of pale yel 

 lowish buffy on the sides ; skull long and slender; frontals and nasals very 

 narrow. 



Measurements of type specimen. Total length, 558 ; tail vertebrae, 84 ; hind 

 foot, 117. 



Remarks. Lepus tularensis is a pallid form inhabiting the hot Bakersfield- 

 Tulare Basin at the extreme south end of the San Joaquin Valley, whence 

 it extends over the adjacent Carrizo Plain on the west. In winter its 

 domain is invaded by the foothill species of the surrounding region, Lepus 

 richardsoni Bachman, both occurring at Alila, Bakersfield, and other points 

 not too far from the base of the hills. 



Lepus texianus wallawalla subsp. nov. 



Type from Touchet, Plains of Columbia, Washington. Adult female, 

 No. ff Iff , U. S. National Museum, Biological Survey Collection. Sept. 18, 

 1890. C. P. Streator. Original No. 271. 



Characters. In summer pelage similar to L. texianus deserticola, but 

 upperparts darker ; in fresh winter pelage similar to eremicus and richard 

 soni. Skull and hind foot small as in deserticola and tularensis (contrasted 

 with the large-footed forms texianus, eremicus, and calif ornicus). Compared 

 with deserticola, the ears are shorter ; hind foot slightly larger ; color of 

 upperparts decidedly darker, partly from much greater admixture of black 

 hairs and partly from a dull buffy fulvous suffusion. In fresh fall pelage 

 ( middle October) wallawalla becomes strongly suffused with pale buffy 

 fulvous, most intense on sides, and the pectoral collar is still more deeply 

 fulvous. The top of head and sides of face remain grizzled gray (nearly 

 as gray as in richardsoni), but a broad ring around the eye and the sides 

 of the neck are pale fulvous, almost but not quite so pronounced as in 

 eremicus. The fronts of the ears are finely grizzled fulvous brown, darker 

 than in eremicus and less gray than in richardsoni and deserticola. In 

 summer pelage the fulvous suffusion is lost, the eye ring becomes nearly 

 white, the cheeks pale buffy gray with very little grizzling, and the 

 pectoral collar pale yellowish buffy. 



Measurements of type specimen. Total length, 555 ; tail vertebrae, 95 ; hind 

 foot, 126. Average of hind foot in 4 specimens, 127. 



