LEPORID/—LEPUS CAMPESTRIS. 299 
gave it the name of Lepus campestris, quoting the descriptions both of Rich- 
ardson and Lewis and Clarke, after having previously partially confounded 
it with Harlan’s L. virginianus. Two years later, Dr. Bachman redescribed 
it under the name of Lepus Townsendi, from a specimen brought by Townsend 
from the Walla-Walla, one of the sources of the Columbia River, supposing 
it to be a species that never became white. Later, however (in Audubon 
and Bachman’s Quadrupeds of North America, vol. i, p. 30), he doubted its 
distinctness from the L. campestris, having subsequently been assured that it 
did assume a white dress in winter. Professor Baird, in 1857, with speci- 
mens before him from the vicinity of Fort Union, in both states of pelage, 
whence some of Audubon and Bachman’s specimens were obtained, unbesi- 
tatingly regarded L. Townsendi as a synonym of L. campestris. From the 
labels on the specimens in the collection of the Smithsonian Institution, how- 
ever, he seems to have later changed his opinion, retaining the name of L. 
Townsendi for the long-legged, long-eared Prairie Hare of Richardson, and 
restricting the name campestris to the representatives of L. americanus 
received from the fur countries, as will be further noticed under the head of 
that species. Professor Baird now, however, agrees with the writer that this 
later identification of L. campestris is erroneous. 
The history of L. campestris was more or less confounded by Harlan 
with that of LZ. americanus, and later by Bachman, who first described it 
under the name of ZL. virginianus, while Godman confounded both this 
species and the L. americanus with the L. “variabilis” of the Old World. 
To Dr. Richardson belongs the credit of first recognizing the subject of the 
present article as a species distinct from L. americanus, and to which later 
Bachman gave the name of L. campestris. 
Lepus campestris is at once distinguishable from the other species of 
varying Hares by the great length of its ears and tail, and by the latter being 
always white on both surfaces. It is of about the size of L. témidus, and 
is hence much larger than L. americanus, and rarely assumes so white a tint 
in winter as these two more northern species. From the other American 
long-tailed, long-eared, and long-limbed Hares (ZL. cadlotis and L. californicus), 
it differs in general color, it the white upper surface of the tail, and in 
changing to white in winter. It also differs notably in the proportions of the 
skull, as already noticed. 
GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION.—The most eastern locality whence this 
