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342 



MONOOUAPnS OF NORTH AMEKICAN KODBNTIA. 



men of the western variety of iii/lvatku.s, as strongly conjectured to be the 

 case by Professor Baird, and for which belief he has given amphi reapcnt' 

 U|> to the present tinic, no adult Hare of this small size has yet been Tuund 

 anywiiero, notwithi'tanding tlie testimony of Townsend that it " was doubt- 

 less an adult animal". He says the hunters, who knew it well, assured him 

 it never grew any larger, but it seems probable that ^hese hunter.« may have 

 had in mind the Little Ciiief Hare {Lagomys princeps). A Hare so abundant 

 us tills is represented to be is not likely to have escaped the observation of 

 the numerous naturalists and collectors who h ive since passed over the same 

 region. 



The Lepus bachmani was described by Waterhouse in 1838 from an 

 immature specimen procured somewhere in the "southwestern portions of 

 North America, supposed to be between California and Texas ",* or ' perhaps 

 Oaliforniu",+ and redescribed from the same specimen in 1839 by Dr. Bach- 

 man. In the Quadrupeds of North America, it is mentioncf^ as " describe«l 

 from a specimen sent by Douglass from the western shores of America "4 • It 

 is here sjioken of as abundant in Texas, its habitat being regarded as embrac- 

 ing " a great portion of Texas, New Mexico, and California ", and as " probably 

 extending south through great part of Mexico'' and northeast to "about 

 the headwaters of the Red River or Arkansas ".| Professor Baird beliQ,vcs 

 that the real locality of Waterhouse's and Bachman's first specimen (the 

 (me sent by Douglass) was Texas, although he was at first, on the ground 

 of locality, inclined to identify it with what he afterward described as Lepus 

 audulnmi. The two specimens referred by Professor Baird to L. " bachmani" 

 are from Brownsville, Texas, and are still in the collection of the Smithsonian 

 Institution. * 



The Lepus artemisia was <le8cribed by Dr. Bach^nan in 1839 from n 

 specimen brought from Fort Walla- Walla by Mr. Townsend, who speaks of 

 it as common there. It seems to have been recognized only from thij 

 locality (ill 1853, when Dr. Woodhouse referred specimens to it from the 

 Zufli and Colorado Rivers. In 1857, Professor Baird referred to it speci- 

 mens from Oregon, Nebraska, New Mexico, and Texas ; and the name has 

 since l)oen generally used for the designation of the small Gray Hare of the 

 plains and Rocky Mountain region generally. 



* Bochiuau, Juuru. Acud. Nat. 8ci. Phils., viii, 1)7. 



t Wntcrhunitx, Mmii., ii, 1W4. 

 . t And. aud Kacli , Vuod. N. Aiiier., iii, :IT. * 



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