28 MERRIAM 



Characters. — Similar to E. epixanthus but tail and hind feet 

 shorter; body, flanks and sides of tail even yellower; face whiter 

 from more abundant admixture of yellowish white hairs on sides of 

 face and between eyes, so that the fore part of head appears almost 

 grayish instead of sooty. 



Cranial characters. — Compared with typical epixanthus from 

 California the skull as a whole is much shorter, broader, and more 

 rounded (less angular) ; occipital and sagittal crests absent or much 

 less developed ; zygomata bowed strongly outward [instead of sub- 

 triangular], the outer side convex outward [not flat] ; braincase short, 

 broad between posterior roots of zygomata, and tapering posteriorly 

 so that the breadth between squamosals anteriorly is much greater 

 than breadth of occiput [instead of subequal] ; outer wall of antorbital 

 vacuity (seen from the side) nearly straight and vertical [instead of 

 strongly concave]. 



Retnarks. — An immature female collected at Stepovak Bay, Alaska 

 Peninsula, July 9, 1899, by Charles Palache is the yellowest porcupine 

 I ever saw. It measured 630 mm in total length. 



LEPUS OTHUS sp. nov. Tundra Polar Hare. 



Type from St. Michaels, Alaska. Skull no. 158S3 U. S. National 



Museum. L. M. Turner. 



Characters. — Size very large (hind foot 174) ; winter pelage white 

 all over except extreme tips of ears, which are black. 



Cranial characters. — The skull of Lepiis othus is so large, broad, 

 and massive that it does not require comparison with the glacialis 

 series from eastern Arctic America, but only with tschiiktshorjivi 

 from the region about Plover Bay, Siberia. From tschuktshoriim it 

 differs in the following particulars : f rontals slightly broader interoi*- 

 bitally; nasals narrower and less flattened; supraoccipital shield nar- 

 rower, much longer than broad [in tschiiktshorum decidedly broader 

 than long] ; jugal decidedly narrower (less expanded vertically), 

 longer posteriorly (protruding farther behind squamosal root of 

 zygoma), and with muscular impression on outer face decidedly nar- 

 nower anteriorly; basioccipital narrower; incisive vacuit}' smaller. 



Cranial measurements. — Type specimen: basal length 86.!^ ; zy- 

 gomatic breadth antciiiorly 49; at widest point 52; postpalatal length 

 46.5 ; greatest breadth across postorbital processes 39; greatest breadth 

 of nasals posteriorly 22; anteriorly 20. 



