LEPORID®—LEPUS AQUATICUS. 365 
reddish-brown above, mixed with dusky. Ears exteriorly dark brown, pen- 
ciled with black, white-edged on the anterior border, fulvous-edged on the 
posterior border. Nape-patch reddish-brown; orbital ring well marked, 
whitish, varying to yellowish-white. Anterior and external surfaces of the 
legs and feet chestnut-brown, of varying intensity in different individuals; 
inside of the same whitish, varying to pure white. 
The color varies in different individuals, as is usual in all the species of 
the family, in respect to the amount of black on the dorsal surface, in respect 
to the intensity of the brownish ground-color, and in the strength of the 
reddish tint on the legs and feet. There is also about the usual range of 
individual variation in size. Large specimens range in length, exclusive 
of the tail, from 19.00 to 20.50 inches, thus nearly equaling the same meas- 
urement of the largest specimens of Lepus americanus, but it is said to rather 
exceed the latter species in weight. The feet are rather sparsely furred as 
compared with most of the other North American species, but are much 
more fully clothed than in Lepus palustris. The general pelage is rather 
harsh and stiff as compared with that of Z. sylvaticus and other northern 
forms, but much less so than in LZ. palustris. Its coloration is nearer that 
of L. sylvaticus than of any other of its allies, but its large size, and espe- 
cially the large size of the head, serves at once to distinguish it from that 
species. It is not only much larger than L. palustris, but differs conspicu- 
ously from it in coloration, especially in the whiteness of the lower parts. 
It agrees with L. palustris, however, in the general conformation of the skull, 
especially in respect to the postorbital processes being solidly anchylosed 
with the skull, and in the disproportionately larger size of the lower jaw. 
In the collection are quite a number of specimens from the provinces 
of Vera Cruz and Yucatan in Southern Mexico. These differ from speci- 
mens from Mississippi and Louisiana in no very marked degree. The brown 
of the upper parts is in some specimens of a rather more fulvous tint, and 
the chestnut-brown of the legs and feet is rather paler; the anterior surface 
of the hind legs being generally very light, sometimes nearly white. In others, 
it is mixed with spots of pale rufous. There is also rather less black in the 
dorsal surface. One of the Louisiana specimens also shows white mixed 
with the rufous on the anterior surface of the hind legs, and one of the 
specimens from Mississippi is nearly as fulvous as the Orizaba ones. 
A specimen labeled “Sierra Madre, Mex., John Xantus”, with the 
