226 Scientific Proceedings, Royal Dublin Society. 



ing Hare. The use of the name " L. timidus," Linn^, for tliis species after 

 its long if erroneous application to L. europmus, Pallas, can only serve to confuse 

 matters. It would indeed be well if the systematists could be induced to 

 realize that science is concerned with things rather than with their names, 

 and that the " balance of convenience " is as worthy of consideration in 

 natural as it is in legal science. 



Fortunately I need not trouble to deal with all the previous discoveries 

 of fossil remains of the Hare in the Pleistocene deposits of Britain ; because 

 Forsyth Major, in preparing his catalogue of the fossil Rodentia in the 

 British Museum, has already had occasion to examine them ; and he has stated 

 that, as the result of his researclies, all the Pleistocene Hare-remains from this 

 country hitherto discovered, and determinable with certainty, are referable to 

 L. variabilis, Pallas, and tliat L. etiropcem, Pall., is probably to bo regarded ns 

 a much more recent introduction.^ 



The Skui.l. 



For the purposes of comparison, the fine series of skulls in the British 

 Museum and those in the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons have 

 been used. Besides the measurements recorded in the tables, many others 

 were taken ; but only those useful in connexion witli tlie fossil material 

 before me are here preserved. 



Many different characters have been cited by different authors' as dis- 

 tinguishing the skull of L. variabilis from that of L. europceus ; but after 

 carefully considering them all, I have come to the conclusioia that as regards 

 the form, only those mentioned by Winge^ and Lonnberg* are at all 

 diagnostic. 



In L. variabilis the frontals behind the superciliary processes are both 

 absolutely and relatively broader than in L. europmis.^ This feature 

 appears to be very constant, for, in the large series of variabilis crania 



1 FoKSYTK Major, Geol. Muff., N.S., dec. v., vol. cxliii., p. 10. 



^ For references see Bibliography given by Heschelek, "Die Tierreste im Kesslerloch bei 

 Thaiingen." Neue Denkschr. d. allgem. Schweizer, Gesell. f. d. Gesamt Natur., Bund sliii, p. 152, 

 and in Hilzheimeh, " Die Hasenarten Europas," Jahreshcfte des Vereins fiir vaterl. Naturhinde 

 in Wiirtt., 1908, p. 418. 



2 WiNGE, " Grbnlands Pattedyr," Meddeleher om Gronknd, xxi.,pp. 357, 375-382, 1902; and 

 " Pattedyr '' (Saiimarks Fauna), 1908, pp. 56-62. 



*" LoNNJiERG, Proc. Zool. Soc, 1905, vol. 1., p. 280. Nathusius has given excellent figures of 

 two Hare skulls in his paper, " Ueber die sogenannten Leporiden." The subject of fig. 1 of his 

 plates is rightly referred to L. europcuus [L. " timidus "] ; but the subject of fig. 2, also refen-ed to 

 the " Feldhase, " is in reality referable to Z. variabilis, as is evident f I'oni the form and measure- 

 ments (see Table III., p. 236). 



» LONNHERO, op. Cit., p. 281. 



