186 CALIFORNIA MAMMALS. 



Type locality, Hope Valley, Alpine County, California, alt. 

 7800 feet. 



Higher valleys of the Sierra Nevada south tO' Menache 

 Meadows, in winter the eastern slope of the Sierras down to the 

 upper edge of the sage brush. Dairymen summering in the Sier- 

 ras told me that these Hares could not run fast. One man, who 

 remained through the winters told me that they turned white with 

 the early snows and showed me fragments of skins that were 

 white on the surface and brownish or grayish beneath the surface. 

 The large feet with unusually long hair on the soles are responsi- 

 ble for the peculiar name "Snowshoe Rabbits." They are also 

 known as White tailed Jack-Rabbits. They do not seem tO' be 

 plentiful anywhere. 



Subgenus Macrotolagus. 



Interparietal obliterated in adults ; supraorbital process large, 

 united to cranium posteriorly, in adults inclosing a large foramen ; 

 rostrum long; size large. 



! Lepus californicus Gray. (Of California.) 



CALIFORNIA HARE— JACK-RABBIT. 



Above grayish drab thickly mixed with black and tinged with 

 fulvous; sides and breast grayish vinaceous cinnamon; belly buft 

 or very pale cinnamon, ears drab, whitish on the back side, edged 

 with brownish white or bufify white, and tipped with black ; sides 

 and under surface of tail grayish cinnamon, upper surface black, 

 this stripe extending up on the rump; legs mostly light drab 

 brown, more or less tinged with cinnamon. 



Length about 560 mm. (22 inches) ; tail vertebrae 90 (3.50) ; 

 hind foot 120 (475) ; ear from crown 160 (6.30) ; weight from 

 four to seven pounds. 



Type locality, probably the old San Antonio Mission, Mon- 

 terey County, California. 



Northwestern Lower California north through California 



