164 On Caprolagus, a new genus of Leporine Mammalia. 
cuous; the ears are comparatively very short; tail the same ; 
limbs small, and much less unequal than in Lepus ; and the claws 
are particularly strong, straight, and very sharp-pointed, being 
obviously of important use in the creature’s ceconomy : lastly, the 
fur is very remarkable for an animal of the Leporine group, on 
account of its harshness, which is well expressed by the specific 
appellation hispidus. 
The skull is much more solid and strong than in any Lepus, 
with every modification that should contribute to mereased 
strength, but upon the same subtypical model of conformation ; 
dentition also similar, but the grinders broader and more power- 
ful, and the incisors and rodential tusks proportionally much 
larger: the palatal foramina are reduced so that the bony palate 
is as long as broad; the ant-orbital foramina are nearly closed by 
obliquely transverse bony spicule, corresponding to the open 
bony network observable in Lepus ; the nasal bones are broad, 
with an evenly arched transverse section, and are less elongated 
backward than in the true Hares,—the maxillaries and intermax- 
illaries corresponding in their greater width and solidity ; zygoma 
also fully twice as strong as in Lepus ; the super-orbital processes 
continued forward uninterruptedly, the anterior emargination 
seen in the Hares being quite filled up with bone, while the pos- 
terior is also much less deep. 
What little is known of its essential anatomy is, as might be 
expected, identical, or nearly so, with that of typical Lepus. Mr. 
Pearson notices that ‘‘ the mamm* are from six to ten; cecum 
very large, apparently almost like a second stomach ; womb 
double.”’. ; 
The length of the Society’s specimen as mounted, is, in a 
straight line from nose to tail-tip, fifteen inches and a half ; ears 
posteriorly two inches; tail with hair scarcely one and a half; 
tarsus to end of claws three and three-quarters ; entire length of 
skull the same: fur of two kinds, that next the body short, deli- 
cately soft and downy, and of an ashy hue; the longer and outer 
fur harsh and hispid, and consisting partly of hairs annulated 
with black and yellowish brown, and partly of longer black hairs, 
all the black having rather a bright gloss: lower parts paler or 
dingy whitish: toes somewhat yellowish white: fur of the tail 
rufescent above and below, except near its base underneath, and 
not of the same harsh texture as the body fur. 
Mr. Pearson, in his original description of this species, remarks 
as follows: “ From the notes of Mr. C. D. Russell, who sent the 
stuffed skin from which the description has been drawn up, I 
learn that the animal was killed on the right bank of the river 
Teestah, close under the saul forest, and about six miles north of 
Jelpee Goree. In this place they are said to be very scarce, not 
