LBPORID^— LEPUS TIMIDUS. 



293 



nasal bones, which are about as wide anteriorly as posteriorly, while in L. 

 americanus they are considerably narrowed anteriorly. Wliile it is about the 

 size of L. cmnpestrus, it is distinguished from that species by its much shorter 

 ears and tail and shorter limbs, its very different color in summer, and in 

 the much greater whiteness of its winter coat, the winter pelage of L. cam- 

 pestris being brown beneath the surface, with usually a broad grayish-brown 

 area on the middle of the back. From all the other American species it is 

 'too distinct to require comparison with them. 



Geogbaphical distribution. — The L. timidus (var. timidus) presents 

 the rather unusual phenomenon among mammals of being found at isolated 

 localities distant from its main range, in accordance with the law of the occur- 

 rence of arctic species in alpine regions far to the southward of the soutliern 

 limit of the habitat of the same species in the lowlands ; a law, however, 

 ofVen illustrated in the distribution of plants, birds, and insects. The var. 

 timidus hence occurs in Ireland and the Highlands of Scotland, extending as 

 far south as Cumberland ; in the Swiss, Bavarian, and Tyrolese Alps ; and in 

 the Pyrenean and Caucasian Mountains ; in the lower lands in Sweden and 

 Norway; throughout Middle and Northern European Russia, Siberia, and 

 thence northward to the shores of the Arctic Sea. The var. arcticus occurs 

 as far southward as Newfoundland, where it reaches its southern limit of dis- 

 tribution on the Atlantic coast It is found in Labrador, and occurs in the 

 interior as far south as Fort Churchill on the western shore of Hudson's Bay, 

 the northern shore of Great Slave Lake, and the Upper Yukon Valley, and 

 inhabi s the Barren Grounds northward to the Arctic coast. Although 

 supposed by Dr. Bach man to occur in Nova Scotia and Northern Maine, I 

 can find no evidence that such is the case. Its absence from Nova Scotia, 

 on the contrary, is well authenticated. It hence meets, and to some extent 

 overlaps, the habitat of L. americanus. According to Dr. Richardson and 

 other northern explorers, it does not frequent the thick woods, but is often 

 seen near the thin clumps of spruce-fir that border the Barren Grounds, the 

 L. americanus being, on the contrary, a woodland species. 



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