LEPORIDAX—LEPUS AMERICANUS VAR. WASHINGTONI. 309 
skulls, from numerous localities. Fourteen are from Oxford County, Maine, 
and average 3.07 in length (the extremes 3.30 and 2.80) and 1.55 in breadth 
(extremes 1.62 and 1.40). Six other specimens, from different localities in 
Massachusetts, New York, and Pennsylvania, are the largest of the series, 
but they are all very old skulls, and are doubtless larger than the average for 
the localities which they represent, being collected by different individuals, 
and more likely than otherwise were saved from being regarded as “extra 
fine” specimens. They average 3.23 inches in length (extremes 3.35 and 
3.10), and 1.60 in breadth (extremes 1.62 and 1.52). 
As previously remarked under the head of var. americanus, there is 
practically no difference in size or proportions between the series of skulls 
from Maine and the fur countries. 
Var. WASHINGTONI. 
Western Varying Hare. 
Rather smaller than var. vizginianus (of which it is the exact western 
geographical representative), with the summer pelage of a somewhat stronger 
reddish tint; probably white in winter, except in the very mild region about 
Puget’s Sound, where they have been observed to retain their summer pelage 
_ the whole year.* 
The differences between this form and var. virginianus are by no means 
well marked. In color, the tints of the summer pelage are perhaps rather 
stronger in the western form; but even the original specimens described by 
Professor Baird can be matched by specimens from Massachusetts. Both 
the skins and the skulls indicate a slightly smaller size for var. washingtoni; 
but unfortunately one only of the skulls is full grown (this is the largest of 
the series), the sutures of the others being still open, and their general 
appearance is that of specimens but a few months old. The range of var. 
washingtont to the northward and eastward is by no means well known; 
neither are its relations with L. bairdi Hayden. <A series of specimens, in 
winter pelage, collected by Dr. Kennerly (Nos. 5881-6, Coll. S. I.) during 
the Northwestern Boundary Survey, are remarkable for their whiteness, the 
basal plumbeous zone being lighter-colored and much reduced in extent, as 
compared with var. americanus; the subterminal fulvous-brown zone is of 
a more or less pale delicate salmon color, in some specimens nearly or quite 
obsolete, leaving the whole pelage of a snowy whiteness to the base, as in L. 
timidus var. arcticus. "The beautiful snowy whiteness of these specimens is in 
