1899.] OK HAEES FROM BRITISH EAST AEElCA. 415 



ment, and took the greatest care of the chicks, as if everything 

 was as it should have been. 



The little birds grew extremely fast, so that at the age of seven 

 weeks they were almost of the size of the parents, fully feathered, 

 and able to fly. These first feathers presented a brownish slatv- 

 grey colour all over the bird, the wing-coverts and tertiaries 

 having lighter edges, the whole of the plumage being very glossy. 

 The legs and bills, which had gradually turned from black into 

 grey, now began to show signs of assuming the pinkish coloiu' 

 proper to the adult bird of this species. Ou the bills the pink 

 became visible in stripes or lines. 



At the age of eleven weeks the heads got white feathers and the 

 brownish body-feathers began to be replaced, especially at the 

 sides, by the more bluish-grey ones of the adult Cassin's Snow- 

 Goose. At the present time (February 3rd, 1899) the heads are 

 nearly white and the rest of the bodies are nearly moulted, the 

 brownish-grey feathers being replaced by bluish-grey ones ; so 

 there is little doubt but that they will assume the typical plumage 

 of Chen ccerulescens without any undue mixture of white. 



As when two good species cross, the offspring nearly always 

 presents the mixed appearance of the parents, I consider this 

 result of the interbreeding of my Blue and White Snow-Geese as 

 an additior.al proof, if such were wanted, of the non-validity of the 

 White and Blue Snow-Geese as separate species. The two forms 

 being only colour-variations, there was no reason for a mixed 

 coloration in the oii'spring. The young have simply taken the 

 colour which is probably most adapted to the circumstances under 

 which the birds live. In this case it was the plumage of Chen 

 ccerulescens. Judging from these facts, I also think it probable 

 that the intermediate forms which are found in Xorth America in 

 a wild state are not so much the result of the interbreeding of the 

 typical White and Blue forms, as the produce of a range of 

 country where the circumstances which formed the White or Blue 

 forms are not sufficiently pronounced. 



3. On two Hares fi'om British East Africa, obtained by 

 Mr, Richard Crawshay. By W. E. de Winton, P.Z.S. 



[Eeceived March 6th, 1899.] 



(Plate XXIV.) 



Mr. Richard Crawshay, who is so well known as a traveller and 

 contributor to our knowledge of the fauna of Africa, has lately 

 sent to the National Collection two Hares from British East Africa. 

 One of these belongs to an already described but little known 

 species, hitherto recorded only from IS^orth -eastern Somaliland ; 

 the other is a very distinct and apparently undescribed form, which 

 I propose to name, in honour of the collector, Lepiis crnwshayi. 



