Mr. C. C. Babiiigton on the British Rubi. 165 



above four having been seen by Mr. RusselPs party during ten 

 days, though game of all other kinds was met with in great 

 plenty ; and the following year the same party killed only one. But 

 towards the hills, as Mr. Russell was told by the natives of that 

 part of the country, they may be met with in greater abundance. 

 Of the habits of this animal little is known. Mr. Russell states 

 that ' its flesh is white, and eats very much the same as that of 

 the rabbit / and from the circumstance of his never having suc- 

 ceeded in putting one up a second time, he is almost certain that 

 it burrows. It is called by the natives of the country, where it 

 was met with, by the same name that they give to the hare.^' 



Mr. R. W. G. Frith, upon examining the Society's specimen, 

 believes it to be the same animal so often described to him by 

 sportsmen, who have on several occasions been shooting in the 

 extensive sal jungle in the district of Mymunsing, called the 

 Muddapore jungle, on the western or right bank of the Burram- 

 pooter river ; but he never chanced to meet with it himself, though 

 he long ago called my attention to the existence of such an ani- 

 mal in that part. 



It is included in Messrs. McClelland and Horsfield's list of the 

 Mammalia of Assam, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1839, p. 152, but with 

 the statement that the ears are "very short, not projecting be- 

 yond the fur,'' which is either a mistake, or another species is 

 alluded to ; though I believe the former to be the truth : Mr. 

 McClelland remarking, " I am indebted to Lieut. Vetch of Assam 

 for the skin of this animal, but unfortunately the skull is want- 

 ing. According to Mr. Pearson, however, it is the same as the 

 skull of the common hare. It inhabits Assam, especially the 

 northern parts of the valley along the Bootan Mountains." The 

 differences of the skull from that of any Lepus have been already 

 adverted to. 



I propose that it should bear the generic name Caprolagus, and 

 be accordingly styled C. hispidus (Pearson), nobis. 



XXV. — A Synopsis of the British Rubi. 

 By Charles C. Babington, M.A., F.L.S., F.G.S. &c.* 



It is only of late years that the fruticose species of Rubus have 

 received the attention which they deserve : botanists were long 

 contented to call them all R. fruticosus or R. ccesius, and the in- 

 troduction by Smith of another name {R, corylifolius) must have 

 appeared to be a very great innovation. Each of these is a col- 

 lective species, by which I mean, one in which many forms, doubt- 



* Read before the Botanical Society of Edinburgh, Feb. 12, 1846. 



