LEPORID^— LEPUS AMERICANUS. 



325 



while qiiile ncciirntcly describing tlic aiiimnl, confounds it with other spocicfi; 

 for, in spcniting of its distribution and hal)its, lie quotes not only Kalm's refer- 

 ence to the L. sylvnticus, but also Liivvson's account of the Habbit of Carolina. 

 Erxleben, in 1777, based his L. americanus on Kalm (his reference to the Hare 

 of Hudson's Hay, not the southern Gray Rabbit), Harrington, and Forster, and 

 his diagnosis is in every respect applicable to this species, and to this alone. 

 Gmelin's account is abridged from tluit of Erxleben, he citing the same 

 authors. Shaw, and some other later writers, continued to confound it with 

 other species, giving as its habitat the whole of North America. Pallas, in 

 1778, described it under the name of Lepus hudsonius, and Schreber, in 1792, 

 as Lepus nanus. While Schreber' s diagnosis refers exclusively to L. ameri- 

 canus, he blended its general history with that of L. sylvalicus. Desmarest, 

 in 1822, rather increased the confusion already existing by giving u descrip- 

 tion referring mainly to L. sylvaticus under the name of L. americanus. In 

 his references, he cites not only Erxleben and Pallas, whose descriptions refer 

 exclusively to L. americanus, but also Schoepf, whose description of "Der 

 Nord-Amerikanische Haase" as exclusively refers to L. sylvaticus, while he 

 gives its habitat as including not only the region west of Hudson's Bay, but 

 also the Carolinas, Florida, Louisiana, California, and Mexico. From this 

 time, however, till 1842, the name americanus was often applied, even by 

 American writers, to the L. sylvalicus, it being thus used by Harlan in 1825, 

 and later by Fischer, Audubon, Emmons, Thompson, and others. Harlan 

 still further increased the confusion by redescribing the L. americanus under 

 the name of L. virginianus, supposing it to be a new species ; while Dr. 

 Godman, in 1826, considered it as identical with the L. variabilis of Europe. 

 The mistakes of Desmarest and Harlan were repeated even by Dr. Bachman 

 in his first paper on the American Hares, published in 1837. In the mean 

 time, however, Dr. Richardson (in 1829) had re-instated Erxleben's name of 

 L. americanus, and Dr. Bachman, in a supplemental note to his paper, recti- 

 fied his former error. In 1839, in a second paper on the American Hares, 

 Dr. Bachman refers to this species under its proper name; and, in 1849, in 

 the first volume of the Quadrupeds of North America, fully elucidates its 

 synonymy, giving Erxleben's description in full. Since the date of Dr. Bach- 

 man's second paper, the species has been generally recognized by its proper 

 designation. I find, however, that all the skulls of this species, in the Museum 

 of the Smithsonian Institution, from the Hudsoa's Bay Territories, are marked 



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