RODENTIA LEPORIDAE LEPUS SYLVATICUS. 597 



LEPUS SYLVATICUS, Bach man. 



Gray Rabbit. 



Lepus nanus, SCHBEBER, Saugt. II, 1792, 881 ; pi. ccxxxiv, B. (In part only, especially the figure.) 

 DEKAT, N. Y. Zool. I, 1842, 93 ; plate xxvii, fig. 1. 

 WAGNER, Suppl. Schreb. IV, 1843, 114. 

 Lepus americanus, DESMAREST, Mamm. II, 1822, 351. 

 HARLAN, F. Am. 1825, 193. 

 AUD. Orn. Biog. II, 51 ; plate. 



BACHMAN, J. A. N. Sc. VII, n, 326 ; plate xvi, fig. 3 4. (Ear and foot.) 

 THOMPSON, N. H. Vermont, 1842, 48. 



Lfpus sylvaticus, BACIIMAN, J. A. N. Sc. VH, n, 1837. IB. VHI, i, 1839, 78. 

 WATERHOUSE, N. H. Mamm. II, 1848, 116. 

 ACD. & BACH, N. Am. Quad. I, 1849, 173 ; plate xxii. 

 Der Nord-Amerikanische Haase, SCHOEPF, Der Naturforscher, XX, 1784. 



SP. CH. Hind leg, from heel, longer than the head by the length of the claws. Ears about two-thirds the length of the 

 head. Fur full, and moderately soft. Pads of the feet full. Back light yellowish brown, banded, and lined with black ; 

 this color extending along the anterior edge of thighs. Side much grayer ; across the rump clear ash, gray and black. 

 Nape, fore legs, and outside of hind legs, yellowish rusty, anterior face of the latter whitish ; throat, yellowish gray. 

 Lower parts pure white. Tail above, like the back ; beneath, pure cottony white. Ears with the posterior edge whitish ; 

 the edges of the dorsal surface, towards the tip, black, the other portion, except the external band, ashy brown. Concavity 

 of ear whitish. Fur everywhere lead color at the base, except under the tail. Among the largest of the short-eared rabbits 

 of North America. Ears considerably shorter than the head ; measured from the base of the cartilage, of equal length. 



No. 304. The dorsal region and the upper part of the tail exhibit a mixed yellowish brown 

 and black this color imparted by the long hairs, which are lead color for two-thirds their 

 length ; then black, then yellowish brown, and then tipped with black. The fur proper is lead 

 color, except the extreme tips, which are blackish brown. The sides of the body and thighs 

 and throat are mixed yellowish gray and light brown ; the hairs being lead color at base, then 

 brownish white, shading into pale rusty, and then yellowish gray (the principal color) and tipped 

 with black. The entire rump, top, and sides, are of a much purer ashy gray, the black tips to 

 the hairs giving somewhat the appearance of concentric circles. The fore shoulders have a light 

 wash of rufous, this, in fact, invading the throat. The back of the neck and upper part of the 

 back, the fore legs all round, (paler internally,) the outer surface of the tarsus and lower tibia 

 are clear yellowish brown or pale rusty, more or less mixed on the hind legs with reddish white. 

 Along the anterior edge of the thigh is a band of the color of the back. The sides of the head 

 are reddish gray, with the black tips to the hairs obscurely arranged in crescent-shaped lines. 

 "Whiskers are mostly black. Entire under parts, with the exceptions stated, pure white, with 

 a patch of pale rusty along the groin. 



The ears are nearly naked on their concave surface, except posteriorly and terminally ; on the 

 back part of the ear the hairs are quite sparse. The posterior edge of the ear, with the anterior 

 fringe, are rusty white, the internal and external bands like the back ; the latter clear pale 

 rusty towards and around the tip of the ear ; the former, with a concentration of black hairs 

 superiorly so as to form a dark line on the anterior flexure, running into a dark brown margin 

 around the tip of the convexity of the ear. The remaining portion of the dorsal surface of the 

 ear is a mixed dark ash and brown, paler below where it runs into the rusty of the nape. The 

 fur everywhere is lead color at the base except under the tail, where it is pure white. 



