168 BULLETIN 99, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



Mearns notes one small fetus in a female collected at Sir Alfred 

 Pease's Farm, May 9. 



In full, fresh pelage this is a richly colored hare, much darker than 

 raineyi or victorise, and less rufous or ochraceous than abhotti or 

 Jcakumegse. Only a few skins are in the best pelage, the majority 

 of the specimens showing considerably the effects of wear and fading. 

 Specimens in juvenile coat are pale brownish gray, but those in the 

 post-juvenile pelage are darker than many adults. As with most 

 hares, these latter may be distinguished from the adults by the 

 peculiar fine streaking of the post-juvenile coat. Some adults, in 

 old pelage but not yet showing much wear, are very gray in color, 

 differing markedly from the darker, fresh-coated animals. There 

 is great uniformity in the skulls throughout the entire series, and I 

 do not detect any subspecific differences between skins from the 

 extremes of distribution for the race. No evidences of direct inter- 

 gradation with L. victorise or with L. raineyi are to be found from our 

 material. Contrary to the general opinion, I do not think that the 

 ranges of these species overlap, and I would not be surprised if 

 victorise eventually proved to be a subspecies of Lepus capensis, 

 grading into crawshayi or abhotti. 



LEPUS VICTORIA VICTORLE Thomas. 



1893. Lepm victorise Thomas, Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist., ser. 6, vol. 12, p. 268. 



October. (Nassa, Speke Gulf, Victoria Nyanza, German East Africa; 



type in British Museum.) 

 1910. LeptLS victorise Roosevelt, African Game Trails, Amer. ed., pp. 473, 479; 



London ed., pp. 485, 491. (Part.) 



Specimens. — Fourteen, from localities as follows: 



British East Africa: Deep Dale, Sotik, 1 (Heller); Kabalolot 

 Hill, 2 (Heller); Oljoro O Nyon River, 1 (Loring); Southern G\iaso 

 Nyiro River, 9, including 1 odd skull (Loring, Mearns, Heller); Telek 

 River, Sotik, 1 (Heller). 



This is a distinctly larger hare than Lepus capensis crawshayi. It 

 does not, so far as our material shows, range east of the Rift Valley. 

 I suspect that it is a subspecies of Lepus capensis and that intergrading 

 specimens will be found between it and crawsTiayi or abhotti. The 

 characters of the incisor teeth, commonly used to distinguish victorise 

 from crawshayi,^ are average only, and are not to be relied upon in 

 every case. Compared with Lepus capensis crawshayi, the Victoria 

 hare is a much less brightly colored animal, less gray or less blackish 

 according to the condition of the pelage. Our specimens are a 

 very uniformly colored lot, but there is considerable variation in 



» See de Winton, Proc. Zool. Soe. London, 1889, pp. 416, 417; Lonnberg, Kungl. Sv. Vet. Akad. Handl. 

 vol. 48, No. 5, p. 111. 1912. 



