LEPus 499 



conspicuously grey. Sides with evident though not very notice- 

 able sprinkling of hairs 60-70 mm. in length, the basal half dark, 

 the terminal half whitish. Tail white below and around entire 

 edge,* the dorsal surface with a broad clear black median stripe. 

 Nape clear bufFy, with or without a greyish white suffusion. 

 Head essentially like body but with the darker and lighter 

 colours more finely blended. An evident (sometimes conspicuous) 

 lighter area between eye and muzzle and another between eye 

 and base of ear. A slightly defined grey eyering, below and 

 behind which there is often a noticeable tawny area. An 

 ochraceous or tawny spot at base of whiskers. Ear buffy (rather 

 paler than buff of body) with the following colour-pattern : inner 

 surface cleai- buffy sometimes tinged with grey, the buffy clearer 

 and brighter just below tei'minal black rim, and much darker and 

 somewhat grizzled over an area about 40 mm. long and 10 mm. 

 wide along median portion of outer edge (though not involving 

 extreme rim, which is very pale bufl" *or even whitish from base 

 to black terminal portion), the grizzled region further emphasized 

 by a small pallid area at its inner base ; anterior outer surface a 

 fine grizzle of the same elements as those of back, the edge 

 conspicuously fringed with clear bufiy except at black-rimmed 

 tip ; posterior outer surface bufiy at extreme base, grey or 

 buffy grey at middle, and black at tip, the black area extending 

 conspicuously below rim of ear and forming a definitely outlined 

 j)atcla 25-35 mm. long, and 10-15 mm. wide. Underparts, 

 except collar, white, this colour extending to inner surface of 

 legs, which, though occasionally much tinged with buffy, are 

 always noticeably paler than outer surface (cf. L. mediterr emeus). 

 A clear buffy or ochraceous patch in inguinal region, the two 

 patches sometimes meeting in median line. Feet butty, darker 

 on the toes, paler proximally, but never marked with pure white 

 (cf. L. granatensis) ; soles an indefinite buffy grey. 



The grey winter coat, when it occurs, differs from the usual 

 pelage merely in the substitution of a light drabby grey for all 

 the buffy and ochraceous tints, the black remaining unchanged. 

 The colour pattern is therefore in no way modified, though the 

 general appearance of the animal is so altered as to have given 

 rise to the belief that individuals in this pelage represented 

 hybrids between Lepus europse'm and some form of varying hare.| 



Skull. — The skull of Le^ms europseus resembles that of L. 

 iimidus more closely than would be anticipated from the con- 

 spicuous external differences in the animals. Ordinarily they 

 may be distinguished by size, as in L. europseus the occipitonasal 

 length is usually more than 93 mm. (92 to 105 mm.), while in 

 L. timidus (except in the large L. t. timidus) it is seldom more 



* The absence of the white edging at tip of tail is nearly always an 

 indicatioii that the extremity has been broken off. 



t Such individuals may be distinguished from hybrids by the length 

 and colour of the tail, and by their cranial characters. 



2 K 2 



