1895. PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM. 557 



form widely different from L. holzneri, bearing, in fact, a closer resem- 

 blance to the skull of the Le2n(s arizona'. 



LEPUS ARIZONA MAJOR, new subspecies. 

 GREATEE DESERT COTTONTAIL. 



Geographic (Hstrihi(fion. — This rabbit occai)ies the elevated interior 

 region, between the eastern and western deserts, its range extending 

 along the Mexican boundary from Poso de Luis, Sonora, to the basin 

 of the Mimbres, Chihuahua. Northward, it penetrates the Transition 

 Zone on the Colorado Plateau; and southward it assumes a darker 

 phase in the Yaqui Basin. 



Description of type. — In winter pelage ; taken October 23. Similar to 

 X. arizoniti (tyi)ica) but larger, more reddish, and darker. Pelage long, 

 dense, and rather course; ears and feet well coated; above grayish 

 drab, tinged with cinnamon, and thickly lined with black-pointed hairs 

 on the back; sides paler, drab-gray; rump clear iron-gray; nape and 

 outer surface of limbs, dull cinnamon ; ears pale grayish on concave 

 surface, drab mixed with gray and black on convex surface, and black 

 at apex; under parts white, except the chest which is light clay-color. 



Type.—^o. Molrl, U.S.N.M. Adult male, collected at Calabasas, 

 Arizona, October 23, 1889, by L)r. Leonhard Stejneger. Original num 

 ber, 3053. 



LEPUS ARIZONiE MINOR, new subspecies. 



LESSER DESERT COTTONTAIL. 



Geograpliic distrihution. — This rabbit ranges from the plains of Colo- 

 rado southward to the Rio Grande and westward to the elevated central 

 tract, where it intergrades with L. arizonw major in the pass between the 

 southern end of the Kocky Mountains, and northern extremity of the 

 Sierra Madre. 



Description {based on the 1 1/2)6, in winter pelage). — Coat long, dense, 

 and silky. On the back it is gray at base for a little more than half 

 its length, then ringed successively with brown, black, and Naples yel- 

 low, pointed with black. Ears and feet well clothed. Upper surface 

 of body yellowish brown, of a shade closely resembling Naples yellow, 

 thickly lined with black, changing to yellowish gray on the sides, with 

 a rather distinct line of buff separating the grayish sides from the 

 white underparts; rump grayish white, lined with black; head pale 

 gray, tinged slightly with yellowish brown on the cheeks and more 

 deeply so on the crown ; whiskers black ; ear with convex surface gray- 

 ish white posteriorly, gray slightly mixed with yellowish brown and 

 black anteriorly, fringed with white on basal two-thirds of anterior 

 edge, tipped with black, and coated with grayish white on concave sur- 

 face, where there is an obsolete patch of dusky parallel to the posterior 

 edge; nape light cinnamon; anterior face of fore limbs ochraceous- 

 cinnamon ; outer aspect of leg wood brown ; hind feet white above, cinna- 



