294 LEPORID^— LEPUS 



maxillary sutures, where they terminate in marked swellings 

 on each side of the palate. The cheek-teeth are longer, the 

 height of a posterior upper premolar, measured from crown 

 to extreme upper point of the root capsule, within the orbit, 

 being greater than the alveolar length of its tooth-row. 



The mandible is characterised by its relatively large dimen- 

 sions of height, a consequence of the more hypsodont teeth. 

 Its inferior border is rounded, not sharp, and passes insensibly 

 into the symphysial region. 



The scapula is relatively wider, this feature being more 

 marked in L. hibernicus than in L. t. scoticus. The tibia attains 

 a much greater length than in Eulagos. 



The group includes a number of forms of circumpolar 

 distribution in Europe, Asia, and North America, but not 

 occurring naturally in Novaya Zemlya, Franz Joseph Land 

 (Bruce), Spitzbergen (CoUett), Iceland, or the Faeroes. Two 

 pairs from Norway were turned down in 1854-55 at Stromo, 

 in the latter islands, and their descendants are stated to have 

 increased so rapidly as to have numbered thousands after a 

 very few years (Miiller and Trevelyan, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., 

 December 1864, 461), and even to have supplied material for 

 reintroductions thence to Norway (Collett). 



The exact status of some of the described forms is uncertain, 

 but they may for present purposes be regarded as of specific 

 value ; some, as L. altaicus and L. hibernicus, occupy mountains, 

 or islands, where they are completely separated from their 

 nearest allies. L. altaicus (Sanford, Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc, 

 London, xxvi., 1870, 127), described from the Altai Mountains, 

 is a reddish-brown hare, resembling L. hibernicus in colour, 

 but with the black ear-tip extending downwards to the base of 

 the ear; L. ainu (Barrett- Hamilton), described from Yezo, 

 Japan, has a large narrow skull, the occipito-nasal length of 

 which reaches 97 mm. ; Nordquist's L. tschuktschorum, of north- 

 eastern Siberia, is even larger than the last, with occipito-nasal 

 length of skull 103 mm. ; Allen's L. ghiciganus, described from 

 Ghiciga, Eastern Siberia, is smaller, tawnier in summer, and 

 with less massive skull and teeth. Undescribed hares of this 

 group occur in Sakhalin Island (see Thomas, Proc. Zool. Soc, 

 London, 1907, 414), as well as in the Stanovoi (see Allen, 



