FOSSIL AND EECENT LAGOMOEPHA. 493 



dwells so securely that it is seldom or never seen even by the natives, save for a short 

 period after the great annual clearance of the Tarai hy fire ; and they tell me that it feeds 

 chiefly on roots and the bark of trees, a circumstance as remarkably in harmony with 

 the extraordinary rodent power of its structure as are its small eyes and ears, weighty 

 body, and short strong legs, with what has been just stated relative to the rest of its 

 habits. The whole forms a beautiful instance of adajitation without the slightest change 

 of organism " *. Even if it had not been expressly stated, I would have concluded 

 from the structure of the fore limbs (lext-flgs. XXXVI-XL) that the Hispid Hare is a 

 l)ui-rowing animal : in fact, the only member of the family whose organization betrays 

 fossorial propensities. 



Nothing is known aboiit the habits of the Sumatra Hare, Caprolagns {Nesolagus) 

 Netscheri t. Prom the structure of its fore limbs, PI. 38. fig. 28, it may be safely inferred 

 that it is a bad runner, and it may be an occasional burrower; but it is certainly much 

 less fossorial than C. hispidns. 



The mode of locomotion of L(Kjoiirys [L. piis/lliis) is thus described by Pallas : — 

 " Incedunt L. p/isilH elumbi et sul)sultante gressu, sed propter bi-evitatem pedum, 

 maxime posticorum, neque celeriter eurrunt, nee nisi inepte exsiliunt. In posticos pedes 

 raro eriguntur " I Winge concludes from this that " the mode of locomotion is therefore 

 the same as in Lepus.'" Besides, he thinks it probable that the ancestors of Lagomys 

 have been better runners than the recent species ; this, on account of the resemblance of 

 the rump- and limb-skeleton between Layomys and Lepiis. Also, according to the same 

 Avriter, some features in the skull of Lagomys, showing that the organs of smell and sight 

 are less developed, point nevertheless towards a former different condition §. As seen 

 from the figures (PL 38. fig. 20), Lagomys resembles ordinary Rodents and Insectivores 

 in the lateral position and non-reduction of the ulna, and also in its comparatively short 

 hind legs. This is the primitive condition. Are we, then, to assume that the ancestors 

 of Lagomys, starting from this condition, reduced their ulna and shortened their hind 

 legs, only to revert again to the former primitive condition presented by the living 

 species? Equally far-fetched seems to me the supposition that the choanai had formerly 

 been wider and the eyes larger. Neither Prolagus (PI. 39, fig. 36) nor Tifanomys supports 

 the former assumj)tion, and there is no indication of larger orbits in Frolagus, nor of 

 supraorbital processes in either of the two fossil genera. The statement, " incedunt 

 L. pusilli elumbi et subsultante gressu," which recalls Coues's description of *S'. palustris 

 (" scuttles along with shorter, quicker steps, more constrained and spasmodic, moving by 

 jerks, as it were"), proves, in my opinion, an incipient stage of the leporine locomotion. 



* The view expressed ia the latter part of the last sentence is not correct. 



t H. Schlegel, " On an anomalous Species of Hare discovered in the Isle of .Sumatra : Lejjus Sctucluri *' (■ Xoti.'s 

 from the Leyden Museum,' vol. ii. note sii. p. 59, 1880). 

 + ' Novae Species Quadrup. e Ulirium Ordine,' p. 35 (1778). 

 § H. 'Winge, ' Jordfundiie og nulevende Giiavere (Rodentia),' p. 113. 



