ZOOLOGY. 131 



Length from olecranon to end of longest nail. 5.3G inches. 



Length from heel to end of longest toe-nail 4. 50 do. 



From greater trochanter to end of toe-nail 11.00 do. 



Span of fore and hind legs, extreme reach 29.00 do. 



Length of longest whisker bristle 3. 60 do. 



Chin and upper portion of throat white. A white linear streak under each nostril, below 

 which a line of the same color as the cheeks. Whiskers, some black ; the others white ; the 

 latter longest. Toe-nail &quot;coverts&quot; white. External (posterior) edge of concave surface of 

 ear ivhite upon a subterminal edging of black. Hairs of breast and abdomen white to their 

 bases. Eyes full. 



This hare is frequently found in the very thickest of the sombre Oregon forests. It also is 

 plentiful among the shrub-oak bushes near the small lakes, on the Nisqually plains, where their 

 well-beaten trails or &quot;run ways&quot; are very apparent. They are also fond of the woody edges 

 of the prairies of that vicinity. In habits they much resemble the common wood hare of the 

 middle States, (L. sylvaticus.) 



I have frequently heard of a hare that is found at the cascades of the Columbia, which, the 

 settlers say, has a black tail. I never obtained a specimen from that locality, although I got a 

 skin of the Lepus Washingtonii from a point only forty miles further down the river. I appre 

 hend that the &quot;black-tailed hare&quot; of the settlers is nothing more than the latter species, the 

 dark lead color of the tail being mistaken by inaccurate observers for black. S. 



LEPUS CAMPESTRIS, Bach. 



Prairie Hare; Townsend s Hare. 



[ForSp. Ch., see chap. 2, p. 104.] 



The big hare, or jackass hare of the plains, is abundant on the plains of the Columbia east 

 of the Cascades. In 1853 we were informed by the Yakima Indians living north of the 

 Columbia that a very fatal disease had recently prevailed among these animals, which had cut 

 them almost all off. G. 



Townsend s hare was obtained by me from two points quite remote from each other: the 

 Missouri river, near the mouth of the Yellowstone, and the eastern slope of the Blue mountains 

 of Oregon! (See notes on these, chap. 2, p. 104.) 



Between the two points mentioned I saw in very cold weather, in the second chain of Rocky 

 mountains, near Clark s fork of the Columbia, a large hare, which was pure white, running 

 through the forest on the snow. I have but little doubt that the individual belonged to the 

 present species, which tends to settle the doubt, if any had previously existed, whether the 

 kind varies in winter. The Missouri specimen was scarcely as large as that from Oregon, and 

 was probably immature. Measurements: forearm. 4.75 inches; femur, 4.75; tibia, 5.50. S. 



? LEPUS CALLOTIS, Wagler. 



Jackass Rabbitt; Texas Hare; Black-tailed Hare. 



[See chap. 2, p. 104.] 



These hares are exceedingly abundant on the left bank of Boise river, where they were so 

 plentiful that a party of sixty men, to which I was attached, subsisted chiefly upon them for a 



