Apeil 10, 1896.] 



SCIENCE. 



565 



Fischer, 1829 

 Bachman, 1837, 1839 

 Schinz, 1844 

 Wagner, 1844 

 Nilsson, 1847 

 Luben, 1848 

 Waterhouse, 1848 



Lilljeborg, 1874 

 Gill, 1876 

 Eink, 1877 

 Feilden, 1878 

 Greely, 1888 

 Brauer, 1888 

 Merriam, 1892 



If there were no other reason for choosing 

 glacialis instead of arcticus, and wholly irre- 

 spective of the merits of the two names, glacialis 

 would have to be taken if we accept the rule 

 that in cases of names of equal pertinency, the 

 first reviser of the group has the privilege of 

 fixing the name. Lepus glacialis was used with- 

 out exception by all the naturalists who pub- 

 lished on American rabbits between 1819 and 

 1843, including Eiohardson, Godman, Lesson, 

 Hamilton Smith, Fischer and Bachman. It is 

 obvious, therefore, that the name glacialis can- 

 not be displaced unless one of earlier date be 

 found. 



Linnteus described the Arctic- Alpine Hare of 

 the mountains of northern Europe, under the 

 name Lepus timidus, in the 10th edition of his 

 Systema Nature (1758, p. 57), and referred to his 

 previous description in Fauna Suecica (1746, No. 

 19, p. 8), thus fixing Scandinavia, and presum- 

 ably southern Sweden, as the type locality of the 

 species. The common large hare of Europe, 

 although often confused with L. timidus, is a 

 distinct species and was .named L. europeeus by 

 Pallas as early as 1778. The distinctness of the 

 two was admitted by Nilsson, Lilljeborg and 

 others, and is recognized by Lydekker, one of 

 the most conservative mammalogists of the pres- 

 ent day. Notwithstanding these facts, Mr. 

 Rhoads takes the trouble to re-restrict the type 

 locality of timidus to 'Southern Sweden,' and 

 to re-afiirm the distinctness of the American 

 animal— a point conceded by nearly all mammal- 

 ogists for three-quarters of a century. 



Mr. Rhoads' next effort is to divide the 

 American Polar Hare into additional species 

 and sub-species, as follows : L. arcticus [= L. 

 glacialis Leach] from BaflSn Land, L. arcticus 

 hangsii from Newfoundland; and L. greenland- 

 icus from Greenland. Instead of contrasting 

 these with one another, or with the original 

 Lepus glacialis of Leach as a standard, he 

 crosses the seas to make his comparison with 



L. timidus. Hence, if one aspires to know how 

 the Newfoundland and Greenland Hares differ 

 from the typical American animal from Baffin 

 Land, he must first ascertain how each differs 

 from the Scandinavian timidus, and then, by 

 various processes of addition and subtraction, 

 seek to find how they differ from one another. 

 At this point he is likely to be overwhelmed 

 with discouragement, for Mr. Rhoads does not 

 always describe the same parts or structures in 

 the forms he names as new. Thus, we are told 

 that, in L. timidus " the radius of the arc de- 

 scribed by the incisors is one-eighth {i\%) of the 

 basilar length of the skull," and in L. greenland- 

 icus the same radius ' is one-fifth (i%%) the bas- 

 ilar length,' but in arcticus and bangsii the arcs 

 of the incisors are not described at all, leaving 

 the student of the geometry of Leporine teeth 

 in abject despair. 



After a somewhat exhausting study of Mr. 

 Rhoads' paper, the only tangible difference I 

 am able to find between the Newfoundland and 

 Baffin Land Hares is that the latter turns gray 

 in summer, while the former turns only partly 

 gray. This sets one to wondering if Mr. Rhoads 

 will next separate weasels that turn white in 

 winter from specimens of the same species that 

 remain brown the year round. 



At the close of his paper Mr. Rhoads states 

 that he "is now preparing a more comprehen- 

 sive revision, with illustrations, of the New 

 World representatives of the Lepus timidus 

 group." Let us earnestly hope that he will 

 make it sufiiciently comprehensive to tell how 

 the component parts of the American Polar 

 Hare differ from one another. C. H. M. 



North American Birds. By H. Neheling. 4°, 

 part XIII., pp. 47, pis. 2. March, 1896. 

 Geo. Brumder, Milwaukee. 

 The 13th part of Nehrling's well-known 

 work has just come to hand. It treats of the 

 Cardinals, Rose-breasted and Blue Grosbeaks, 

 Indigo, Lazuli and Painted Buntings, Grass- 

 quits, the Dicksissel, Lark Bunting or White- 

 winged Blackbird, and Bobolink. The text 

 maintains the high standard of the earlier 

 numbers, but the two colored plates, both of 

 which are of the ' mixed ' kind, are cheaply 

 printed and decidedly inferior. 



