1905.] HARES FROM SOUTHERN' SWEDEN. 287 



to be true L. europceus. Whether the condition is different at 

 other places in Scania, T do not know. 



The two species have not, as is well known, the same habits. 

 The " German Hare " frequents open and cultivated fields, 

 in which it seems to select and prefer the most fertile spots. 

 The Variable Hare, again, gives preference to a landscape where 

 forests or groves and shrub-covered hills alternate with pastui-es 

 and cultivated fields*. These biological differences might perhaps 

 result in a third kind of inodus vivendi, viz., that either species may 

 select its own suitable localities and " settle " there, without mixing 

 any more with the other or interfering with the same on its own 

 grounds, so to say. In such a way an explanation might he found 

 for the fact that in other countries, where both these species of 

 Hares occur side by side in a wild state, or where, at least partly, 

 their areas of distribution overlap, so very few hybrid-crossings 

 have been found, to judge from the available litei-ature. Or is it 

 probable that such hybrids are not so very uncommon ? In such a 

 case they must have been overlooked, for the literature concerning 

 similar cases is very scanty. 



In ' Zool. Garten ' f 0. von Loewis writes that he has seen at 

 least a dozen such hybrids within 20 years in Livonia, and states 

 that he has ascertained the correctness of this opinion through 

 comparative measurements ; but his narrative is confined to this, 

 and he does not quote any measurements nor give any description. 



In Switzerlancl it appears that hybrids have been found between 

 the Common Hare {L. eurojxetts Pall.) and the Alpine Hare 

 (Z. varronis Miller). At least parti-coloured specimens have been 

 described as such by Tschudi and others. Captain Th. C. zu Balden- 

 stein described 1863$ a Hare which he had obtained in Dec. 1862 

 at Paspels in Switzerland, and which seems to have been most 

 probably a hybrid, to judge from its colour and from the statement 

 that the ears and tail w^ere shorter than in L. eitropceus, with 

 which the specimen otherwise agreed in size. There is, however, 

 no description of the skull, so that it would have been fortunate 

 if the case had been more fully proved, even if it must be admitted 

 as very probable. 



* From this maj^ be concluded that the food chosen hy the two sjiecies is some- 

 what different, and that of -L. europceus probahlj' more tender. This again may 

 serve as an explanation of the differences in the development of the masticatiug- 

 apparatus of the species in question, that of L. europcetis being somewhat weaker, 

 with narrower zygomatic arch, &c. (conf . above) . 



tJahrg.1877. 



X Jahresber. d. naturf. Ges. Graublindens, n. F. viii. Jahrg. 



Proc. Zool. Soc— 1905, Yol. I. IS^. XIX. 



