360 VERTEBRATE ANIMALS OF THE UNITED STATES 



S. b. cinerascens (Allen). Color lighter grayish brown: coastal 

 region from Lower California to Santa Monica, also western side of the 

 San Joaquin Valley. 



S. palustris (Bach.). Marsh rabbit; pontoon. Body rather large 

 and yellowish or reddish brown in color; beneath gray; legs short; 

 length 436 mm.; tail 2,2> mm.; hind foot 91 mm.; under side of tail gray, 

 sometimes brownish: coastal portions of the southern States from 

 Dismal Swamp to Mobile Bay; in swampy woods; habits aquatic, the 

 animals taking very readily to water and swimming well. 



Subspecies of S. palustris 



S. p. paltidicola (Miller & Bangs). Color dark reddish brown: 

 peninsular Florida. 



S. aquaticus (Bach.). Swamp rabbit; cane-cutter. Color grayish 

 brown; under side of tail pure white; length 534 mm.; tail 69 mm.; 

 hind foot 106: river bottoms from western Georgia to central Texas and 

 Oklahoma; northward to Tennessee and central Arkansas and in the 

 Mississippi and Ohio River bottoms to Illinois. 



Subspecies of S. aquaticus 



S. a. littoralis Nel. Color much darker and reddish: narrow coast 

 belt from Mississippi to Matagorda Bay, Texas. 



3. Brachylagus Miller. Size small; ears short; tail very small and 

 nearly unicolor: i species. 



B. idahoensis (Merriam). Color drab or pinkish drab in winter and 

 hair very long and soft; color in summer brownish gray; length 291 

 mm.; tail 18 mm.; hind foot 71 mm.: sagebrush plains of southern 

 Idaho and Oregon and northern and central Nevada; makes its own 

 burrows in the ground, being the only American rabbit or hare to do so. 



Family 10. Ochotonidae.— Conies; pikas. Small compact rodents 

 with short legs and without external tail; skull depressed; molars root- 

 less; clavicles well developed: about 26 species, in Europe, Asia and 

 America. 



Ochotona Link. Dentition i/i, 0/0, 2/2, Tyj^,'- about 7 species in 

 the United States, which live in the high western mountains from 

 Alaska to New Mexico, mainly above timber line, feeding upon 

 herbage, of which they collect large winter stores; they do not hibernate; 

 a single litter of from 5 to 4 young raised annually. 



O. albatus Grinnell. Color hoary white above and white beneath; 

 length 180 mm.; tail vertebras 10 mm.; hind foot 29 mm.: Inyo County, 

 California. 



