150 Mr. W. E. de Win ton on fJie Flares of 



upon the various forms of South European hares, but it does 

 not seem quite clear that he had actually compared specimens 

 from Spain with typical specimens of L. mediterraneus^ Wagn., 

 which he had seen in Turin (^ c. p. 415). 



It is now generally agreed that Linnjeus's Lepus timidus 

 refers to the blue or variable hare, so that L, europceus, 

 Pallas, must stand as the name of the brown hare ; thus the 

 typical form of that species is the brown hare of Russia = 

 L. timidus (form c) of Blusius {t. c. p. 417). The Western 

 European form described by Blasius (form h) as differing in 

 colour is also smaller, the length of the hind foot being about 

 an inch shorter than tliat of the Russian hare; although 

 Blasius recognized the difference, he does not attach any 

 distinguishing name to the form, but a name is placed 

 in the synonymy attributed to Schimper on the authority 

 of Gervais (Zool. et Pal^ont. Fr. p. 29, 1851), to wliich 

 no description Avas ever published. In describing the 

 species from the ]\Iediterranean region these more northern 

 well-known forms had to be referred to, and the Central or 

 Western European form being found to differ so much in 

 size and colour from the typical L. europceus, it is considered 

 necessary to describe it and give it a distinguishing sub- 

 specific name. 



On bringing together specimens from the different countries 

 bordering the northern and southern shores of the western 

 portion of the Mediterranean Sea, it will be found that they 

 form a very miscellaneous group. In choosing names for 

 the different forms described I endeavoured to employ 

 several that have found their way into the synonymy given 

 by most authors of L. eurojpaius^ so that, in fact, hares should 

 be found to fit the names, and not fresh names invented : but 

 this was not found possible, the majority evidently referring 

 to the same species ; therefore to save further confusion fresh 

 names are used. 



Tlie name Lepus mediterraneus was given by Wagner 

 (Miinch. Anz. 1841, p. 439) to the small species occurring in 

 the island of Sardinia ; this name hns usually been employed 

 by modern authors when mentioning hares found in any of 

 the adjacent countries. Gervais (Zool. et Pal^ont. Fr. p. 29, 

 1851) introduced two names on the authority of Schimper, 

 who had got together a considerable number of hares in the 

 Strassburg Museum, the conclusion being that these forms 

 were the same as L. vieridionalis, Gen^, a name never 

 published; but later (Hist. Nat. Mamm. i. p. 282, 18.54) the 

 same author considers that Gene's species might probably be 

 identical with L. mediterraneus^ Wagn. Schimper appears 



