U. S. P. R. R. EXP. AND SURVEYS ZOOLOGY GENERAL REPORT. 



of black on the extreme tip of the ear, on both surfaces, about three-quarters of an inch long 

 and about as wide. 



A spring specimen, 355, about changing, has the fur as if soiled with yellowish. The new 

 summer fur is making its appearance in irregular patches of a brownish gray, washed with 

 dirty yellowish, almost precisely as in Lepus campestris. The under fur is a dirty white at the 

 base, with rather a more brownish tinge towards the tip ; the long bristle hairs are black, 

 lighter at the base, and with a subterminal annulation of grayish. 



In a young summer specimen the prevailing color is a mixed yellow-brownish gray and black, 

 with, however, a strong plumbeous sooty tinge, which is very distinct in the fur of the sides 

 and belly, where the bristle hairs are wanting. The rump is very decided sooty plumbeous, 

 this color extending narrowly along the upper side of the tail, which elsewhere is a dirty sooty 

 white. The exterior of the hind legs is tinged with sooty, of the fore legs with yellowish 

 brown. The pads of the feet are dusky yellowish brown ; the anterior faces of the hind legs 

 whitish. The ears are entirely of a glossy black, mixed a little anteriorly at the base with 

 yellowish brown ; the extreme posterior edge is whitish. The under fur is as described in the 

 preceding specimen. 



A winter skin from Greenland appears to have shorter feet and ears ; the former more densely 

 furred. The black tip to the ears is only barely visible. 



I cannot find any character by which to distinguish the Lepus glacialis and L. variabHis of 

 Europe when in their winter fur. The summer dress, comparing the young Newfoundland 

 skin with one of L. variabilis var. borealis, from near Stockholm, is also much the same in both. 

 The ears of the former, however, are much more intensely black. The whitish under fur above 

 is less reddish ; the tips or subterminal annulations of the coarse hairs are more gray instead 

 of being of a reddish brown. The head has less of a cinnamon tinge. The resemblance is, 

 however, certainly very close both in size and proportions, and with the difference indicated, 

 both have the sooty on the rump and upper surface of the tail, the sooty tinge to the pectoral 

 band, &c. In the American animal the sooty tinge extends to the extremity of the chin instead 

 of this being rather whitish. 



Winter specimens of L. variabilis, from the Highlands of Scotland, appear to have dispro 

 portionately smaller ears than those from Sweden, of either of the varieties, canescens or 

 borealis. 



The skull of this species is very similar to that of L. variabilis of Europe ; so much so as to 

 render it very difficult to discern any difference in the specimens before me. It is much 

 broader, shorter, and more curved than in L. cali/ornicus or callotis ; it is considerably longer 

 behind the post orbital notches than in L. Americanus. 



The polar hare is peculiar to the arctic portions of the American continent, the island of 

 Newfoundland, where it is quite abundant, being its southern limit. Its western boundary is 

 not known, though it probably extends across to Behring's Straits. It is also an inhabitant of 

 Greenland. 



