184 GRAY RABBIT. 



the latter,) named the species, very likely, as we are inclined to think, 

 without having had any specimen before them, and simply attaching a 

 name to the descriptions of the English naturalists. Be this as it may, 

 in less than three years it had already received, in Germany alone, the 

 several names of L. Amcricanus, nanus, and Hudsonius. If Schreber, 

 who had the Philosophical Transactions lying before him when he drew 

 up his description, (for he quotes both the accounts,) and who also pos- 

 sessed the accounts of Erxleben and Pallas, had examined a different 

 species, surely he would have made the discovery ; but after a careful 

 examination, and not a bad description, he gives the size, colour, and 

 measurements of the Northern hare, and finally quotes Foester, Pexnant, 

 ScHCEPFF, &c., as his authorities for the species. 



The name Lepiis nanus, given to it by Sciikeber, might at first lead us 

 to conjecture that as he meant to designate his species as a small hare, 

 and as the Northern hare is rather large, he could not have intended it 

 for the latter, but had in view the Gray Rabbit — hence the name, nanus, 

 dwarf. There can, however, be no difficulty in accounting for the choice 

 of that name. On turning to the eleventh page of the Philosophical 

 Transactions, vol. xlii., where the species was first announced, it will be 

 perceived that Barrixgton had been closely investigating the several spe- 

 cies of hare with which the naturalists of Europe were acquainted at 

 that early day ; and he gives the following measurements : — 





Fore-leg* 



Hind-leg. 



* 



Back and Head. 



Rabbit 



4i inches 



6i inches 



16^ inc 



Hare 



71 " 



11 



a 



22 " 



Hudson's Bay quadruped 



6J " 



lOf 



(( 



18 « 



Alpine hare 



. 61 " 



161 



a 



22 « 



« 



' From uppermost joint 



to toe. 







Here then we have the relative sizes of the several species. The 

 first is the common wild rabbit of England, (-L. cuniculus,) which is a 

 little larger than our Gray Rabbit. The second is the common Eng- 

 lish hare, (L. timidus.) The third, the American hare from Hudson's 

 Bay ; and the fourth, the Alpine or variable hare, (L. variabilis.) The 

 rabbit being a burrowing animal with white flesh, w^as not considered a 

 hare, and the American animal was smaller than either the European or 

 the Alpine hare, measuring only eighteen inches in length, whilst these 

 last measured twent3'-two inches each. We, perceive, therefore, that it 

 was called Lepus nanus, because it was the smallest of the species then 

 known. For the same reason our American woodcock was called scolopax 



