■)■:, 



326 



MONOGUAl'US OF NOUTU AMERICA UODENTIA. 



L. " ciniijiestris". Some of thom, however, henr the pnitiully-crased nnme L. 

 ^'amoiannis" of a ])iior (lotcrniiiintion. The skins, however, of those same 

 KpL'ciiiicns, are still labeled L. ^'ameriranuii" or L. ^'americanun!" whenever ii 

 specific name is added, some l)eing lulxilcd simply ^^Lepus". The L. '*cam- 

 jtestris" of Ilajdcn, referred to in his dc8crij>tion of L. haiidi, belongs to 

 this northern form, as docs also the L. "campestris Bachman" of Dnll, given 

 in his nominal list of the Mammals of Alaska, as shown by his specimens still 

 in the collection of the Smithsonian Institution. 



Respecting this application of the name camjtentri^, Professor Bnird 

 writes nie (under date of March 31, 1874) that he was "still not convinced that 

 the Lepits virginianus of Richardson refers to the Townsend's Hares of the 

 Upp(;r Missouri. The specimens described by Richardson", he continues, 

 "arc of course too imperfect to permit any satisfactory description ; and the 

 dimensions given are probably too large. It is entirely out of the question 

 for Richardson to have overlooked the occurrence of the northern variety of 

 Lepus americanus, as it is found everywhere, from Fort Garry northward, is 

 very common on the Saskatchewan, and constitutes a large portion of the food 

 of the Indians in the regions traversed by him. It is particularly abundant 

 about latitude 55°. In the many collections that we have had from the Hud- 

 son's Bay Territory, you will note the entire absence of any Hares resembling 

 the fownsendi. If my supposition be correct, then, if you give a name to 

 the grayish northern form of the American Hare, that should be cainpestris, 

 and Townsend's name be retained for the big Missouri River species." 



As already noticed under the head of Lepus campestris, I consider Rich- 

 ardson's L. virginianus (subsequently named campestris by Bachman) to refer 

 beyond question to the long-limbed, long-eared, and long-tailed Townsend 

 Hares of the Upper Missouri, and can see no reason for presuming the meas- 

 urements given as "probably too large". Bachman certainly understood his 

 name to apply to a long-eared, long-tailed Hare so like what he later named 

 L. fotonsendi that he repeatedly states his conviction that they would prove 

 to be the same, he having been at first erroneously informed that the L. 

 townsendi never became white. As to Richardson overlooking "the north- 

 ern form of Lepus americanus", he certainly did not do so, as he has described 

 it in detail under that name, and especially refers to its importance to the 

 Indians as an article of food, and their method of capturing this animal. 

 Furthermore, he distinguishes the L. virginianus as a prairie species, while 



