FAUNA AIVIERICANA. 195 



variabilis ; the ears of the common hare are usual- 

 ly considered one-tenth longer than the head, 

 those of the present species are from one-fifth to 

 one-seventh ; the fore teeth are curves of a much 

 longer circle, and the orbits of the eye project 

 much more than those of either of the other spe- 

 cies ; the claws are broad, depressed and strong ; 

 those of the L. timidtis and variabilis being on the 

 contrary, compressed and vi^eak ; the hind leg is 

 shorter, in proportion to the size of the animal^ 

 than in the variabilis; the fur is exceedingly thick 

 and woolly, of the purest white in the spring and 

 autumn, excepting a tuft of long black hair at the 

 tip of the ears, which is reddish-brown at base j 

 the whiskers are also black at the base for half 

 their length. In some of the full grown specimens 

 killed in the height of summer, the hair of the 

 back and sides was a grayish-brown towards the 

 points, but the mass of fur beneath still remained 

 white ; the face and the front of the ears were a 

 deeper gray; the fur is interspersed with long 

 solitary hairs, which in many individuals were 

 banded with brown and white in the middle of 

 summer. The hares which Mr. Hearne describes 

 in his northern voyage, as inhabiting the continent 

 of America as high as the seventy-second degree 

 of latitude, are stated to weigh fourteen or fifteen 

 pounds when full grown and in good condition. 

 The largest hare killed at Melville Island did not 

 weigh nine pounds ; were it not for this difference 



