﻿PROCEEDINGS OF THE UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



issued B^^fVvi Ol^n by the 



SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 



U S NATIONAL MUSEUM 



Vol. 100 Washington: 1950 No. 3265 



MAMAIALS OF NORTHERN COLOMBIA 



PRELIMINARY REPORT NO. 6: RABBITS (LEPORIDAE), WITH 

 NOTES ON THE CLASSIFICATION AND DISTRIBUTION OF THE 

 SOUTH AMERICAN FORMS 



By Philip Hershkovitz 



Rabbits collected by the author in northern Colombia during his 

 tenure of the Walter Rathbone Bacon Traveling Scholarship include 18 

 tapitis representing Sylvilagus brasiliensis and 73 cottontails repre- 

 senting Sylvilagus Jloridanus. The following review shows the above 

 named to be the only recognizably vahd species of leporids indigenous 

 to South America. 



All North and South American rabbits in the collection of the 

 United States National Museum and the Chicago Natural History 

 Museum were compared in preparing this report. Examples of 

 Neotropical rabbits from other institutions, given below, were also 

 examined. Available material included 34 of the 36 preserved types 

 of South American rabbits. 



In the lists of specimens examined, the following abbreviations 

 are used: 



A.M.N.H. American Museum of Natural History. 



B.M. British Museum (Natural History). 



CM. Carnegie Museum. 



C.N.H.M. Chicago Natural History Museum. 



M.N. H.N. Mus6um National d'Histoire Naturelle, Paris. 



U.M.M.Z. University of Michigan Museum of Zoology. 



U.S.N. M. United States National Museum. 



Z.M.T. Zoological Museum, Tring. 



853011—50 1 327 



