Vol. XIV, pp. 97-98 June 27, 1901 



PROCEEDINGS 



OF THE 



BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON 



THE ALPINE VARYING IIARE.-^ 



BY GERRIT S. MILLER. Jk. 





In tlio first contury B. C. the varyinsf hare of Switzerland 

 was (lescrihcd hy Varro. f It was known also to Pliny;J and, 

 in fact, nearly all writers on the mammals of Europe down to 

 the present time have mentioned the animal. When the vary- 

 ing hare of northern Europe became known it was supposed to 

 be the same as the Swiss animal, so that the names timidus 

 Linna-us, (ilpimis Erxleben, and ndriahilis Pallas, were applied 

 collectively to both. Melchior§ is apparently the only writer 

 wlio has questioned this assumed identity. Five specimens of 

 the Swiss hare in the United States National Museum show con- 

 clusively that the species is distinct from that of Sweden. In 

 memory of its first describer it may be known as: 



Lepus varronis sp. nov. 



7V;>^'.^A(hilt male (skin and skull) No. 105,832 United States National 

 Museum. Collected at Grisons. Heinzenberg-. Canton of Graubiinden, 



*Published here b}- permission of the Secretarj- of the Smithsonian 

 Institution. 



fDe Re Rustica, III, cap. XII. 



:}:Naturalis historia. Ill, cap. LY. 



i^Den danske Stats og- Norges Pattedyr, p. 70. 1834. 



16-BiOL. Soc. Wash. Vol. XIV, 1901. (97) 



