78 Bangs — The 'American Varying Hares. 



northern than southern localities, is assumed at the approach of 

 winter* 

 The three eastern races are as follows : 



Lepus americanus ameiicanus (Erxleben). 



Lepus americanus Erxl. Syst. Anini., p. 330, 1777. 



Type locality. — Hudson Strait, south side. 



Geographic distribution. — Labrador and perhaps the higher Hudsonian 



regions of central North America. 



Subspecific characters. — Hind foot large; general color of upper parts (in 

 summer pelage) shades of light yellowish brown and drab; a conspic- 

 uous white border to ear, all around, even in the young; skull short and 

 broad, not deeply constricted behind postorbital processes; incisor teeth 

 very slender and slightly projected outward. 



Color. -Adult in summer pelage: upper parts varying individually 

 from hair-brown and drab to tawny clay color, many black tipped hairs 



*This peculiarity of not turning completely white in winter has been 

 given as one of the principal characteristics of the southern race ( L. amer- 

 icanus virginianus) , but it does not seem a difference of any great impor- 

 tance and surely not one on which a subspecies could be based. The 

 problem of how the winter coat is acquired lias given rise to a good deal 

 of discussion among naturalists, some taking the view that it is due to a 

 change in the color of the hair itself, and others that it is brought about 

 by a moult, Dr. J. A. Allen (Bull. Am. Mus. of Nat Hist., vol. VI, 

 p. 107, 1894), who studied the question carefully and with considerable 

 material, is firmly convinced that the latter view is the correct one. It 

 seems to me that the bottom of the question has not yet been reached. 



In spring the case is clear enough, and the change from the white 

 winter to the brown summer dress is wholly due to a moult. The long 

 white hairs fall out, leaving the animal clothed in a coat consisting 

 mainly of the underfur, through which can be seen patches of the in- 

 coming brown hairs of summer. The case is not so clear in autumn. In 

 late summer we find the adult hares in such short and worn pelage that 

 in places the skin often shows through. When the eOol weather of 

 autumn comes and the hares stop breeding, a moult begins, in which the 

 change is not to a white winter dress, but to a long full coat of brown, 

 like that of summer. Before this moult is complete, however, the animal 

 gradually begins to turn white. During this process many of the new 

 hairs are white from the time they first appear, but what happens to the 

 new brown hairs that have just been grown is a question. Does it seem 

 that in the economy of nature these should again be shed before they 

 have served their purpose? If hair and feathers can change color, as 

 many suppose, does it not seem reasonable to assume that the American 

 Varying Hare comes by his winter coat in two ways? Some hairs are 

 white from the time they first appear, but others, which at first are 

 brown, grow to their full length and then change to white. 



