!;■ I 



'!:''l!i|. 



MONOGRAPnS OF NOllTD AMEKICAN RODENTIA. 



ward extension of two other well-marked species, namely, L. californicus 



and L. Trou-bridgei, whose ranges are almost identical with tliat of L. 

 sijlvatkus var. Auduboni. 



In the interior we meet with stilj another species {L. callotis), whose 

 range extends from about the latitude of Southern Wyoming southward 

 over the arid interior far into the Republic of Mexico. In the United 

 States, this species also finds the Sierra Nevada Mountains a barrier to its 

 westward extension, they bounding its habitat in that direction. The south- 

 ern representatives of this species also constitute a seemingly well-marked 

 variety (texianus), diifering mainly in possessing a stronger suffusion of 

 rufous. 



In the southeastern portions of the United States, we ineet with two 

 specics,which are confined almost exclusively to the swampy lowlands. These 

 are the L. jyalustris, which ranges throughout the swampy districts of the 

 South Atlantic and Gulf coast to Yucatan, and the L. aquaticus, which has 

 not as yet been reported as occurring to the eastward of Alabama, but which 

 extends westward and southward throughout the wet lowlands of the Gulf 

 coast to Yucatan and other parts of Southern Mexico. These species also 

 extend northward over the lowlands of the Lower Mississippi, having been 

 found as far north as Southern Ohio. 



The Tres Marias Islands afford still another species (Z. Graysoni sp. 

 nov.) — possibly an insular form — whose nearest affincs arc the members of 

 the L. sylvaticus section of the genus, though in some respects it is allied 

 also to the Swamp-hares. 



Lepus hrasiliemis is the sole representative of the Leponda thus far 

 recognized as occurring in any part of South America, its range extending 

 from Patagonia northward to the Central American States. It seems, how- 

 ever, to be nowhere abundant. 



The temperate portions of the North American continent, or the United 

 States, thus form the region where the family reaches its maximum develop- 

 ment. All the species but three (one of which, Lepus Graysoni, is prob- 

 ably an insular form) are found within the territory of the United States, as are 

 also, with a single exception, all of their varieties. The other two species arc 

 Lepus (ircticus and Lepus brasiliensis — the one an arctic form, the other trop- 

 ical, while the variety is the subarctic race of L. americanus. One species 

 only (Zi. sylvaticus) is found over a large portion of the area east of the Mis- 



