LEPUS SALAE. 57 



NOTE XL 

 ON LEPUS SALAE, A NEW AFRICAN HARE. 



BY 



Dr. P. A. JENTINK. 



Febr. 1880. 



Hitherto only a small number of well cleliued species 

 of Hares are known from Africa , viz : one or two spe- 

 cies from Algiers and Tunis ; eleven have been described 

 as inhabiting the N. E. parts of Africa as far as Somali- 

 land, while Waterhouse ^) has pointed out that in South 

 Africa there exist three well-marked species of Hares, 

 Two of these species have been captured also at Tette and 

 Quellimane, 17° S. L. ^). But no naturalist ever saw a 

 Hare from the West-Coast of Africa. About ten years ago 

 Mr. D. Sal a , a naturalist attached to the Ley den Museum , 

 discovered a Hare in the neighbourhood of Mossamedes 

 (Benguela). This specimen will form the type of a new 

 species as it differs from all the hitherto described species , 

 and I propose to call it after its discoverer , Lepus salae. 



Prima facie our Hare is distinguished from the Cape- 

 Hares by its bright color , in which respect it more resem- 

 bles the Nubian Hare, L. isabeUinus ; with the latter L. 

 salae also agrees in having a white streak from the nose 

 to and round the eyes. The tail is very short, much 

 shorter than in the other African species. Ears longer 

 than head , a characteristic common to all other African 



1) Natural History of the Mammalia, 1848, Vol. fl, pag, 91 S([q. 



2) Peters. Raise nach Mosambique. 



Notes* Ironi the Leyden ]VIuseiim, "Vol. II. 



5 



