RODENTIA - LEPORIDAE - LEPUS SYLVATICUS. 599 



In a large series of rabbits, from Iowa and Wisconsin, I find the average size considerably 

 greater than in the eastern States. There is a greater mixture of black on the back, where the 

 general colors also are grayer. The upper part of the tail is grayish. The fur beneath the 

 tips of the long hairs of rather a sooty plumbeous tinge, instead of the decided yellowish brown 

 of the eastern rabbit. The ears are more densely furred ; the inner and outer bands mixed 

 gray, brown, and black ; the cavity of the ear grayish white ; the back of the ear ashy white ; a 

 black margin encircles the dorsal surface of the ear, beginning a little above the anterior root, 

 and extending some distance round the tip. Notwithstanding the larger size, the ears appear 

 absolutely shorter than in the other. The white of the belly, too, appears more restricted. 



Specimens from the southern States are rather smaller than those from Washington city, and 

 have the fur harsher and coarser, the ears thinner. Winter specimens show a greater amount 

 of black on the back than in those from Washington. This is also seen on the cheeks below 

 the ears. 



The transition to the L. artemisia is very gradual, and, in the case of several specimens from 

 the upper Missouri, I find it very difficult, if not impossible, to decide to which species they 

 belong. This is rendered the more difficult, from the fact that the western specimens of L. 

 sylvaticus are more gray in color than the eastern ones, this being the color of artemisia also. 



It is not a little remarkable that this, one of the best known animals of North America, 

 should not have received a distinct scientific name until 1837, when Dr. Bachman, to whose 

 critical investigations so much of the accuracy of our present knowledge of North American 

 species is due, gave to it the name of L. sylvaticus. The full history of the species will be found 

 detailed at length in the articles of Dr. Bachman, as quoted above. I will only remark, in 

 reference to the citation of L. nanus of Schreber, that, while, from the unquestionable mingling of 

 the characters of L. americanus and sylvaticus in its diagnosis and description, it cannot be taken 

 as the name of the latter species, yet that the detailed description belongs mostly to sylvaticus. 

 Most of this was derived from the article of Schoepf, with unnecessary interpolations from 

 Forster and Pennant. The animal of Schoepf refers entirely to the L. sylvaticus, as will be 

 clearly evident from the translation I give below j 1 that of the two first mentioned authors, to 

 the L. americanus. The diagnosis of Schreber applies exclusively to L. americanus. 



Nord-Amerikanische Haase beschrieben von Johann David Schopf. Der Naturforscher, 20 Stuck, Halle, 1784. 

 [Written at New York, (March?) 1783.] 



The North American hare has universally been confounded with the common European hare, (Lepus timidus, L.,) which, 

 however, is not found at all in this country, and differs greatly from the first named in more than one particular. Even 

 Kalm considered it merely as a smaller variety of the European hare, which was, perhaps, the reason why Linnaeus makes 

 no mention of the American species. 



The people of this country have no fixed name for the species, calling it sometimes hare, and sometimes rabbit. I have, 

 however, learned from various hunters that it is everywhere the same, and that they have never met with any animal 

 similar to the European hare. The greatest length of a full grown specimen seldom equals, or never exceeds, 1 foot, the 

 weight being about 2J or at most 3 pounds. 



