234 Miscellaneous. 



and weight 5 to 7 lbs. Head (straight) 4. Ears 5 inches. Habitat. 

 Gangetic plains and Sub-Himalaya. 



Of the Tibetan species I possess only some wretched remains, 

 which enable me however to indicate the species thus : — 



Lepus Oiosiolus*, with fur consisting almost wholly of wool, consi- 

 derably curved, and interspersed rarely with very soft hairs. Slaty 

 gray-blue for the most part and internally, but externally fawn- 

 tinted above, and whitish below and on the limbs : some hairs on the 

 back tipt with black beneath a subrufous ring. Tail white, with a 

 gray-blue strip towards the back. Apparent size of the last. Ha- 

 bitat, the snowy region of tlie Himalaya, and perhaps also Tibet. 



Hares of the first species are exceedingly abundant in the Nepa- 

 lese Tarai and British districts near it, but less so in the mountains, 

 though there also they may be found in most districts wherein the 

 declivities of the mountains are not very precipitous nor wholly co- 

 vered with dense forests. Hares love the lower and more level tracts 

 within the mountains, where grassy open spots are interspersed with 

 copsewood, under which they may safely rest and breed ; for in the 

 mountains the hare never resorts to holes or burrows ; nor, I believe, 

 voluntarily in the plains, though I have heard the assertion that it 

 does so. In the plains, patches of grass interspersed with cultivation 

 are the favourite resorts of this species, or Jhow shrubberies fringing 

 the banks of nullahs, where occasionally the animals congregate in 

 numbers wholly unknown to the mountains. The Indian Hare, or 

 macrotus, breeds frequently during the whole year, and produces 

 usually two young ones at a birth. The young are born with the 

 eyes open, and furnished with teeth. In June 1835 I took two 

 from the left horn of the uterus (none in the right) of a female ; and 

 these young, though unborn, had the eyes open, and the fur quite 

 perfect. In fact, the young follow their dam as soon as they are 

 born. 



Cathmandoo, February 1841. 



Nepal, March 1st, 1811. 



The account of the Hares which I sent you was written ciirrente 

 calamo, and without my being at the trouble to look (shame on me !) 

 at my own Catalogue of Mammals apud ' Linnaean Transactions,' 

 where the Hare of the plains is named Indicus, and that of the Hi- 

 malaya CEtnodius. These names might do, and changes are bad ; but 

 tropical appellations are objected to, and in the plains there is another 

 Hare, nigricollis, wherefore the names affixed to my paper with you 

 shovdd perhaps stand ; but a note at the foot of the page should 

 identify them with Indicus and (Emodius respectively of the Catalogue : 

 thus, " These species are named respectively Indicus and (Emodius 

 in my published Catalogue. Nor perhaps was it worthwhile to drop 

 the local appellations, though niffricoUis constitute a second species 

 in the plains of India." — B. Hodgson. 



Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, vol. ix. p. 153, 



* As the Tibetan Hare had previously been described by Mr. Water- 

 house, we presume that Mr. Hodgson's name O'iostolus must give place to 

 Tibetanus, See p. 226 of the present Number. — Ed. 



