THE HARRIMAN ALASKA EXPEDITION 29 



LEPUS POADROMUS sp. nov. Peninsula Arctic Hare. 



Type from Stepovak Bay, Alaska Peninsula. No. 98068 U. S. Na- 

 tional Museum, Biological Survey Collection. July 8, 1899. C. 

 Hart Merriam. (Shot by Charles Palache.) Orig. no. 2207 

 (Fisher catalogue). 



Characters. — Size smaller than Lepus othus from St. Michaels, 

 but larger than the members of the glacialis series from eastern Arc- 

 tic America; ears about as in L. ot/ius^i but hind feet and tail shorter; 

 color in summer Y>^\i\^e orlzzled i^'ray\w\t\\ a fulvous tinge on head. 



Color. — Nose and head dull fulvous with a buffy ring around eye ; 

 cheeks dull fulvous, grizzled with longer hairs tipped with black and 

 buffy ; ears grizzled fulvous and black on anterior face, becoming 

 white posteriorly, and narrowly edged with white except on basal third 

 of anterior margin, which is grizzled fulvous and black like rest of an- 

 terior face ; back, sides, and outer surface of hind legs gi"ay, grizzled 

 with buffy and black ; forelegs grizzled grayish fulvous, becoming 

 pale dull fulvous on dorsal surface of feet and mixed with white hairs 

 about toes ; hind feet mainly white; tail hoary or grayish white, be- 

 coming dusky along median line above ; chin and lips whitish ; throat 

 with a broad grayish collar ; pectoral region, strip down belly, and 

 inner sides of legs, whitish. 



Cranial characters. — Compared with its nearest known relative, 

 L. othus from St. Michaels, the rostrum, nasals, braincase, palatal 

 bridge, and incisive vacuity are narrower, the frontal breadth remain- 

 ing essentially the same; nasals in particular much 7iarrower and more 

 arched transversely; pterygoids broader; hamular processes more pro- 

 duced and hooked ; angular process of underjaw with everted edge 

 much broader posteriorly. 



Remarks. — Lepus poadrotnus, compared with a skin of tschuk- 

 tshorum from Arikamchichi Island (No. 3384 U. S. Nat. Mus.) has 

 the fulvous of the nose and head very much darker. Unfortunately 

 no skins of L. othus in summer pelage are available for comparison. 

 Measurc?7ie}its. — (From dry skin of type:) Hind foot 152; ear 

 from notch 80. 



Cranial mcasurc7nents. — Basal length 82 ; zygomatic breadth an- 

 teriorly 47.5; postpalatal length 43; greatest breadth across post- 

 orbital processes 37; greatest breadth of nasals posteriorly 20; an- 

 teriorly 16, 



LEPUS AMERICANUS DALLI subsp. nov. Dall's Varying Hare. 



Type (skull) from Nulato River, Alaska, no. 7579. U. S. National 

 Museum. W. H. Dall. 



