Vol. XIII, pp. 39-40 



PROCEEDINGS 



OF THR 



BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON 



A NEW POLAR HARE FROM LABRADOR* 

 BY GERRIT S. MILLER, Jr. 



Certain marked discrepancies are apparent in the measure- 

 ments of Polar Hares from Labrador and Newfoundland tabu- 

 lated under the name Lepus arcticus hnngsi by Mr. Samuel N. 

 Rhoads in his recent ' Synopsis of the Polar Hares of North 

 America.' t They are, however, passed by without comment. 

 On examining the specimens in the United States National Mu- 

 seum, together with a few lent me by Mr. Outram Bangs, I find 

 that these differences are correlated with others, both cranial 

 and external, and that the Labrador Polar Hare is readily sep- 

 arable from true Lepus hangn (Rhoads) of Newfoundland. Its 

 relationship to the Polar Hare of Baffin Land, Lepus arcticus 

 Ross, is, through the loss of Mr. Kumlien's specimens, less easily 

 determinable. Lepus arcticus, however, according to the best tes- 

 timony, never assumes a complete dark summer coat ; while the 

 single skull that I have examined differs from that of any of the 

 Labrador specimens. As the Polar Hare of Labrador cannot be 

 identified with either Lepus arcticus or Lepus bnngsi it may stand 

 as : 



Lepus labradoiius sp. nov. 



1896. Lepus arcticus havgsi Rhoads, American NatnraHst, XXX, p. 253. 



March, 1896 (part). Type locaHty, Codroy, Newfoundland. 

 1896. Lepus arcticus hangsi Rhoads, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelpliia, 



p. 365. August 4, 1S96 (part). 



Coii/pes: Hk'm No. 14149, United States National Museum, collected at 

 Fort Chimo, Ungava, Lahrador, Septemher 28, 1882, hy Lucien M. Turner 



* Puhhshed hy permission of Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. 

 tProc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia (1896), pp. 351-37(5. 



1(1— HioL. Sue. Wash., Vol. XIII, Is'.iii (:!'.)) 



