251 



CHAPTER XXXVII. 



RODEXTS continued — leporid^ — pikas — hares. 



Lagomys. (Pikas.) (Map 70.) I bring in the Pikas liere before the Hares on accoimt of their 

 having a somewhat greater resemblance to the Hyrax than the Hares have. Fossil remains of extinct 

 species have been found in bone breccia in Corsica and Sardinia of the same age as the breccias 

 at Gibraltar and Cette. Similar relics have been obtained from Kent's Hole ; and specimens, referred 

 without doubt by Cuvier and "Waterhouse to this genus, have been discovered in the pliocene 

 lacustrine formation at CEningen. 



The living species are few in number, but their distribution is interesting. A glance at the Map 

 ■will show that they are, with the exception of a single patch on the Rocky Mountains, between 

 latitudes 42° and G2° N., confined to Asia and the south of Russia, stretchmg from the Black Sea 

 on the west to Kamtschatka on the east, and from the Altai Mountains on the north to the 

 Himmalayahs, not crossing to the Indian side, on the south. In this space there are five or six species 

 known ; two belonging to the northern and eastern parts of its range, one to the south-western, one 

 to the Himmalayahs, Afighanistan, and Cashmere, and another to the high Steppes of Central Asia. 

 There appear to be two species in North America, one (the best known) that called the " Little 

 Chief Hare," is found on the Rocky Mountains, and another has been reported by Mr. Lord from 

 the svmimit of the Cascade Moimtains. The j)osition of both these species trending towards Kamt- 

 schatka, suggests that the Hne of connexion by which, at some former time the Old-world and 

 New-world species were united, must have been by the Pacific rather than by the more distant 

 route of Europe. At the same time we must remember that the fossil remains show that species 

 of the genus formerly existed in Europe, and others may yet be found in North America. 



An allied animal, which has been erected into a genus under the name of Titanomys by Yon 

 Meyer, in the belief, no doubt, that it was a gigantic Mouse instead of a pigmy Hare, has left remains 

 in the middle Tertiary deposits at Weisenau in Germany. 



Hares. — (Map 71.) There are about thirty species of Hare knowTi, perhaps one or two more 

 or one or two fewer, according to opinion of value of character. Of these, sixteen are peculiar 

 to the Old World and thirteen to the New. If South America, on the one hand, and Africa on 

 the other, be omitted, the numbers will be equal, — twelve in North America, and twelve in Eiu'ope 

 and Asia. Tlie number found in South America is one, in Africa four. 



The common Hare (Lepus timidits) is found in England and the Lowlands of Scotland, and all 

 over Europe to the Ural Mountains, with the exception of the Pcninsvda of Scandinavia. It is now 

 introduced into Ireland, but formerly was only represented there hy the Yar^-iug Hare (Lepus 

 variabilis), which turns white in winter. 



