93 



LEPUS AMERICANU S.— Erxleben. 



NORTHEBN HaBB. 



PLATE XI.— Fig. 1, Male ; Fig. S, Young Female. Summer Pelage. Natural Size. 

 PLATE XII.— Winter Pelage. Natural Size. 



L. hyeme albus; pilis tricoloribus, apice albis, ad radices ccEruleis, 

 medio fulvis ; aestate, supra rufo-fuscus, infra albus, auribus capite pauUo 

 brevioribus ; L. Sylvatica paullo robustior. L. Glacialis minor. 



CHAEACTERS. 



Size, larger than the gray rabbit, {Lepus Sylvaticus,) less than the Polar 

 hare; (L. Glacialis.) Colour in summer, reddish-brown above, white be- 

 neath ; in winter, white ; roots of the hairs, blue ; nearer the surface, fawn- 

 colour, and the tips, white ; ears, a little shorter than the head. 



SYNONYMES 



LiETRE, (Quenton Malisia,) Sagard Theodat, Canada, p. 747. 1636, 

 Swedish Hare, Kalm's travels in North America, vol. ii., p. 45. 1749. 

 American Hare, Philos. Trans., London, vol. Ixii., pp. U, 376. 1772. 

 Lepus Amebicanus, Erxleben, Syst. regni Animalis, p. 330. 1777. 



" Nanus, Schreber,Tol. ii., p. 881, pi. 234, fig. 



" HuDSONius, Pallas, Glires, pp. 1, 30. 

 Varyino Hare, Pennant, Arct. Zool., vol. i., p. 95. 

 Lepus Virginianus, Harlan, Fauna, p. 196. 1825. 



« Variabilis, vai. Godman, Nat. Hist., vol. ii., p. 164. 

 American Varying Hare, Doughty, Cabinet Nat. Hist., vol. i., p. 217, pi. 19. Au- 

 tumn pelage. 

 The Northern Hare, Audubon, Ornithological Biog., vol. ii., p. 469. Birds of America, 



pi. 181, (in the talons of the Golden Eagle,) Winter pelage. 

 Lepus Americanus, Richardson, Fauna Boreali A., p. 217. 



" Virginianus, Bach, Acad. Nat. Sciences, Philadelphia, voL vii., p. 301. 



" Americanus, Bach, lb., p. 403, and lb., vol. viii., p. 76. 



" Americanus, Dekay, Nat. Hist. State of New York, p. 95, pi. 26. 



DESCRIPTION. - 



Incisors, pure white, shorter and smaller than in L. Glacialis ; upper ones 

 moderately grooved ; the two posterior upper incisors very small. The 



