160 Bulletin American Museum of Natural History. [Vol. III.] 



Lepus sylvaticus floridanus, subsp. nov. 



Type, No. |fff, ? ad., Sebastian River, Brevard Co., Fla., March 18, 1889 ; 

 collected by Frank M. Chapman. 



Length of head and body, 455 mm. ; tail to end of hairs, 65 (collector's 

 measurements from the fresh specimen) ; length of hind foot (to end of nails), 

 84 ; height of ear from notch, 57 (last two measurements from the skin). 



Skull : basilar length, 57 mm. ; total length, 72 ; greatest breadth, 44 ; 

 breadth at postorbital construction, 21 ; length of nasals, 29 ; width of nasals 

 in front, 9.5 ; greatest width of nasals posteriorly, 16 ; length of lower jaw, 58 ; 

 height of lower jaw at condyle, 37 ; length of molar series at alveolar border, 24 ; 

 breadth of palatal shelf opposite first true molar, 10.5. 



Above mixed buffy gray and black, the black prevailing, especially posteriorly, 

 instead of yellowish brown slightly varied with black as in ordinary L. sylvaticus ; 

 nape and the usual brown areas of the fore and hind limbs much darker rufous 

 than in northern examples ; below the white areas are grayer, and the color of 

 the sides encroaches further upon the ventral surface ; breast band broader and 

 darker ; ears darker, more scantily haired, and more broadly edged and tipped 

 with black ; light area in front of and surrounding the eye grayish white instead 

 of creamy white. The feet are also much less heavily furred. 



A young specimen, less than one-fourth grown, shows the same 

 dark colors as the adult, thus differing strikingly from young of 

 the northern form of corresponding age. 



The skull indicates the size to be about one-tenth less than in 

 average northern specimens. 



Specimens from Gainesville, central Florida, are darker than 

 specimens from North .Carolina and Louisana, but are nearer 

 the northern L. sylvaticus than the South Florida form above 

 characterized. 



