Mr. C.C. Babington on the British Rubi. 165 
above four having been seen by Mr. Russell’s party during ten 
days, though game of all other kinds was met with in great 
plenty ; and the following year the same party killed only one. But 
towards the hills, as Mr. Russell was told by the natives of that 
part of the country, they may be met with in greater abundance. 
Of the habits of this animal little is known. Mr. Russell states 
that ‘its flesh is white, and eats very much the same as that of 
the rabbit ; and from the circumstance of his never having suc- 
ceeded in putting one up a second time, he is almost certain that 
it burrows. It is called by the natives of the country, where it 
was met with, by the same name that they give to the hare.” 
Mr. R. W. G. Frith, upon examining the Society’s specimen, 
believes it to be the same animal so often described to him by 
sportsmen, who have on several occasions been shooting in the 
extensive sal jungle in the district of Mymunsing, called the 
Muddapore jungle, on the western or right bank of the Burram- 
pooter river ; but he never chanced to meet with it himself, though 
he long ago called my attention to the existence of such an ani- 
mal in that part. | 
_ It is included in Messrs. McClelland and Horsfield’s list of the 
Mammalia of Assam, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1839, p. 152, but with 
the statement that the ears are “very short, not projecting be- 
yond the fur,” which is either a mistake, or another species is 
alluded to; though I believe the former to be the truth: Mr. 
McClelland remarking, “I am indebted to Lieut. Vetch of Assam 
for the skin of this animal, but unfortunately the skull is want- 
ing. According to Mr. Pearson, however, it is the same as the 
skull of the common hare. It inhabits Assam, especially the 
northern parts of the valley along the Bootan Mountains.” The 
differences of the skull from that of any Lepus have been already 
adverted to. 
I propose that it should bear the generic name Caprolagus, and 
be accordingly styled C. hispidus (Pearson), nobis. 
XXV.—A Synopsis of the British Rubi. 
By Cuaruzs C. Basrneton, M.A., F.LS., F.G.8. &c.* 
Ir is only of late years that the fruticose species of Rubus have 
received the attention which they deserve: botanists were long 
contented to call them all R. fruticosus or R. cesius, and the in- 
troduction by Smith of another name (R. corylifolius) must have 
appeared to be a very great innovation. Lach of these is a col- 
lective species, by which I mean, one in which many forms, doubt- 
* Read before the Botanical Society of Edinburgh, Feb. 12, 1846. 
