262 Firrtp Museum or Natura History — Zoéroey, Vor. XI. 
being entirely separated from the skull but occasionally the posterior 
end is fused to the skull, leaving an opening or foramen; ‘second to 
fifth cervical vertebree longer than broad. This genus contains two 
North American subgenera, Lepus and Macrotolagus, but only the 
former is represented within our limits. 
o-0 
Dental formula: I. —, C. 
Subgenus LEPUS Linn. 
Lepus americanus phzonotus ALLEN. 
Varyinc Hare. SNOW-SHOE RaBBIT. 
Lepus americanus pheonotus ALLEN, Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., XII, 1899, p. 11. 
Jackson, Bull. Wis. Nat. Hist. Soc., VI, 1908, p. 25 (Wisconsin). Jb., VIII, 
1910, p. 88 (Wisconsin). NrELson, N. Amer. Fauna, No. 29, 1909, p. 95 (Wis- 
consin, Minnesota, Michigan, etc.). 
Lepus americanus Kennicott, Agr. Rept. for 1857, U. S. Patent Office Rept., 
1858, p. 84 (Wisconsin). 
Lepus Americanus LAPHAM, Trans. Wis. State Agr. Soc., II, 1852 (1853), p. 340 
(Wisconsin). STRONG, Geol. Wis., Surv. 1873-79, I, 1883, p. 440 (Wisconsin). 
Type locality — Hallock, Kittson Co., Minnesota. 
Distribution — Northern Wisconsin and the western portion of the 
Michigan peninsular, northern Minnesota, southern Manitoba and 
a small portion of western Ontario. 
Description—In summer: Upper parts brown and ochraceous buff, 
more or less mixed with dusky and with indications of a blackish 
line down the middle of the back; upper surface of tail brownish 
buff or brownish gray mixed with dusky; upper portions of legs 
tinged with rusty brown; ears narrowly bordered with black, the 
extreme edge on inner side often whitish; under parts, except 
throat, white; throat, except extreme upper part and chin, brownish 
buff; upper portion of hind feet tawny buff. 
In winter: General color pure white, except tips of ears, 
bordered with black, and often with the front of the ears more or 
less tinged with brownish buff. In spring and fall it is a parti- 
colored animal, showing irregular markings of brown and white 
during the transition period, when the semi-annual molt of pelage 
and change in color takes place.* 
Measurements — Total length, about 18 in. (460 mm.); tail vertebre, 
about 1.50 in. (38 mm.); hind foot, 5.25 in. (134 mm.). 
* Dr. J. A. Allen has ably demonstrated that this change of color is due to a 
new growth of hair each season and not to a change of color in the old pelage (Bull. 
Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., VI, 1897, p. 107). 
