173 



LEPUS S Y L V A T I C U S .— BACHMAif. 



Gbat Rabbit. 

 PLATE XXII. Old Male, Female, and YonNG. Natural size. 



L. auribus capite curtioribus, aurium apice et margine aut nigro ; cor- 

 pore L. Americano minore, supra cinereo-fulva, fusco mixto, subtus sub- 

 albido. 



CHARACTERS. 



Smaller than the Northern hare ; ears, shorter than the head, not tipped or 

 margined icith black ; colour, grayish-fawn, varied with brown above ; whit- 

 ish beneath. 



SYNONYJIES. 



CoNr, Third Voyage of the English to Virginia, 1586, by Thomas Heniott. From Pin- 



kerton's Voy., vol. xii., p. 600. 

 Hare, Hedge Coney, Lawson, p, 123, Catesby, Appendix 28. 

 American Hare, Kalm's Travels, vol. i., p. 105. 

 Lepus Amehicanus, Desmarest, Mam., p. 351. 



" " Harlan, Fauna, p. 193. 



" " Godman, Nat. Hist., vol. ii., p. 157. 



" " Audubon, Birds of America, vol. ii., p. 51, in the talons of Falco 



Borealis ; Ornithological Biography, vol. i., p. 272. 

 Lepus Americanus, Bach., Jour. Ac. Sc. Phil., vol. vii., p. 326. 



" Sylvaticus, Bach., Jour. Ac. Sc. Phil., vol. vii., p. 403, & vol. viii., p. 78 & 326. 



" Americanus, Emmons, Mass. Report, 1840, p. 56. 



" Nanus, Dekay, Nat. Hist, of New York, 1842. 



DESCRIPTION. 



This species bears some resemblance to the European burrowing rab- 

 bit, {L. cuniculus,) in the gray colour which is natural to the latter in a 

 wild state, but does not change to the different colours the European rab- 

 bit presents in a state of domestication. It is a little smaller, and is of 

 a more slender form than L. cuniculus. Head, short ; eyes, large ; ears, 

 well clothed with short hairs on the outer surface ; within, the hairs are 

 a little longer, but less dense, the outer border for the fourth of an inch 



