556 HABES FROM MEXICAN BOEDER— MEABNS. 



All adult male in recently acquired winter dress (No. 2425, Amer. Mus. 

 Nat. Hist., New York), taken by the writer in the Great Colorado For- 

 est, at Pine Springs, near the Colorado Eiver, in northern Arizona, on 

 November 15, 1S84, is practically identical in coloration with the above 

 described specimen. In both, the pelage is gray at base for half its 

 length, then brown, then narrowly ringed with black and drab gray, 

 successively, and tipped with black. It is slightly larger, with a 

 denser, softer coat. This specimen was compared with the tj-pes of 

 Le^us sylvaticm pinetis, and found to be distinct. 



A detailed account of the variations in the pelage of this species 

 which depend on season, molting, age, and locality will be deferred 

 until the publication of the report on the mammalogy of the recent sur- 

 vey of the boundary. 



Dimensions.— Avemge measurements of G adult males : Total length, 

 415.2 mm.; tail vertebra), 64; ear from crown, 77.8; ear from notch, 65- 

 length of hind foot, 99.5; length of head (from nose to occiput), 82. 

 Average of 7 adult females : Total length, 413.3 mm. ; tail vertebr;p, 69.C; 

 ear from crown, 79.4; ear from notch, 68; hind foot, 97; head, 82.3. 



Cranial and dental characters.— The nasals and rostral portion of the 

 skull are relatively larger than in any other cottontail, the former usu- 

 ally extending beyond the line of the premaxillaries. The audital bulla 

 is small, and the mandible of medium size. The dental armatui-e is 

 rather heavy. 



Type.— 1^0. 58937, U.S.N.M. (Coll. International Boundary Commis- 

 sion). Adult female, from the Douglas spruce zone, near the summit 

 of the Huachuca Mountains, southern Arizona. Collected August 29, 

 1893, by Mr. Frank X. Holzner. (Original number, 989.) 



General rcmarls.—ThU rabbit is quite diiferent in color from JL. bach- 

 mani or X. s. n uttalli, and is much larger than either of them. It is, in fact, 

 the largest cottontail in the Southwest, excei^ting Lepits audnhoni, from 

 which it may be instantly distinguished by its much shorter ear, longer 

 hind feet, and wholly different coloration. I have compared Holzner's 

 cottontail very carefully with the Lejms pinetis recently described by 

 Dr. J. A. Allen,! from the White Mountains, Arizona, and find it to be 

 very different, though, as remarked by Dr. Allen, one of the specimens 

 is immature, and the other in such worn molting pelage as to show but 

 little of the overhair. Though unsatisfactory in character, these speci- 

 mens indicate a form very different from any previously described. The 

 large, bushy feet and heavily clothed ears are quite similar to those of 

 Lepns sylvaticus nuttalH; but, instead of the pallid, hoary, and yellowish 

 coloring of that animal, it is the darkest form of cottontail in the South- 

 west, the young specimen (No. ff fi^ Am. Mus. Coll.) being about as 

 dark as the darkest individuals of the cactus rabbit {Lejms cinerascens). 

 Fortunately the skulls of the two specimens of Lepus sylraticus pinetis 

 are perfect, and that of the adult (No. ff ff, Am. Mus. Coll.) indicate* a 



' Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., VI, p. 348, December, 1894 



