ARTICLE VIII. Descriptions of a New Species and a New Sub- 

 species of the Genus Lepus. By J. A. ALLEN. 



The American Museum has recently received from Mr. E. C. 

 Thurber a specimen of a Hare, allied to but very distinct from 

 Lepus trowbridgei) collected at San Fernando, Los Angeles Coun- 

 ty, California. It may be characterized as follows : 



Lepus cinerascens, sp. nov. 



Type, No. ffff, ? ad., San Fernando, Los Angeles Co., Cal., March 22, 

 1890; collected by E. C. Thurber. On the label is written^by the collector, 

 " Contained four foetuses." 



Length (head and body), 294 mm. ; tail, 24 ; nose to ear, 72 ; nose to eye, 28 

 (collector's measurements from the specimen in the flesh) ; height of ear from 

 notch, 58 ; length of hind foot (to end of nails), 63 (last two measurements from 

 the skin). 



Skull : basilar length, 48 mm. ; total length, 62 ; greatest breadth, 29 ; breadth 

 at postorbital construction, 10 ; length of nasals, 25 ; width of nasals at front 

 border, 7 ; greatest width of nasals posteriorly, 12 ; length of lower jaw, 42 ; 

 height of lower jaw at condyle, 27 ; length of upper molar series at alveolar bor- 

 der, 6 ; width of palatal shelf opposite first true molar, 9. 5 ; least length of 

 palatal shelf, 5.5. 



Post-orbital processes very slender, not touching the brain case posteriorly. 



General color above (in the spring or breeding pelage), gray mixed with black- 

 ish brown, the sides clear gray, the dorsal region pale buffy gray ; lower surface 

 grayish white, the hairs at base light plumbeous ; breast band brownish gray ; 

 nape pale brownish rusty ; anterior surface of fore limbs dull yellowish brown ; 

 upper surface of hind feet white, of fore feet soiled white ; sides of both fore 

 and hind feet grayish brown ; soles yellowish brown ; tail dark gray above, white 

 below with the terminal third gray ; ears very thinly haired, nearly naked (the 

 skin showing through over most of the surface, both externally and internally), 

 brownish gray, without black at the tip or any black or white edging (probably 

 with a narrow white fringe along the basal half of the anterior border in full 

 winter pelage); feet scantily furred ; eye enclosed by a whitish area, which 

 broadens into a distinct spot behind the posterior canthus, and also in front of 

 the eye. 



This is a small, semidesert form, representing in the arid inte- 

 rior of Southern California the much larger, darker L. trowbridgei 

 of the coast region of Central California, from which it differs in 

 its coarse instead of soft, fine pelage, in the pale buffy gray instead 

 of dull chestnut brown of the upper surface, and its much smaller 

 size, L. cinerascens being but little more than half the bulk and 

 weight of L. trowbridgei. 

 {October, 1890.} [159] 



