LEPORID^— LEPUS CALLOUS ET. VAR. 



353 



stages that the passage from the one to the other is by very gradual steps. Thus 

 the general aspect above of specimens from Utah is grav'sh-white, with the 

 faintest tinge of brownish, strongly mixed with black, with a black spot at 

 the tip of the car an inch or more in length. The specimens from Texas 

 and Orizaba, on the other hand, are strongly washed above with fulvous, with 

 the black ear-spot greatly reduced or wholly obsolete. In the Tehuantepec 

 specimen, the fulvous culminates in a quite intense yellowish-brown. 



The general size varies, as usual, very considerably in different individ- 

 uals. Taking the size of the skull as the most convenient standard of com- 

 parison, we find the extremes of variation in a series of eight adult specimens 

 to be, length, 3.37 to 4.08 ; width, 1.63 to 1.82. The ears vary in length in 

 different specimens from 4.50 to 6.00, the largest-eared examples coming 

 generally from the most southern localities. 



General remarks. 



Synonymy. — The variations in color already described have given rise to 

 several synonyms. The species was first described by Wagler in 1830, from 

 specimens collected in Mexico, under the name Lepus callotis. In 1833, 

 Mr. Bennett redescribed it from specimens said to have come from "Cali- 

 fornia", but which doubtless came from Western Mexico, under the name 

 Lepus nigricaudatus. In 1836, Richardson referred undoubtedly to this 

 species, under what seems to have been a MS. name of Lichtenstein's in the 

 Berlin Museum, as "Lepus mexicanus Licht.''* Wagner, in 1844, redescribed 

 the species from Mexican specimens, recognizing three varieties from Mexico, 

 viz, var. I. L. callotis ; var. II. L. nigricaudatus ; var. III. L. Jlavigularis, 

 all based on specimens from Mexico. The differences consist in variations 

 of color, the variety named Jlavigularis apparently closely resembling the 

 above-described example from Tehuantepec. In 1848, Waterhouse described 

 a specimen, from an unknown locality, with black tips to the ears, as presuma- 

 bly the Lepus texianus of Audubon and Bachman, on the i lentification of the 

 specimen by Mr. J.W.Audubon. In 1863, Audubon and Bachman described 

 a Lepus texianus as tlie common "Jackass Rabbit'' of Texas, but without any 

 allusion to Waterhouse's provisional description of a species under the same 

 name. Audubon and Bachman do not mention the ears as having black tips, 



* Respecting thia uame, Waterhoase obaerves : " The brief note relating to the L. mexicanvii of the 

 Berlin MuBenm, ftimiahed me by Dr. Bnohmnn, deaoribee that animal m having the back of the neck 

 black; the white of the nnder parts of the body extending high upon the flanks, and, indeed, in all 

 other respects agreeing with the characters of L. calloUi." Xat. H'ut. Mam., il, 141. 



23 H 



