1186 Common Hare of die Gang etic Provinces. [No. 108. 



Lepus Oiostolus, with fur consisting almost wholly of wool, considerably 

 curved and interspersed rarely with very soft hairs. Slaty grey blue for 

 the most part and internally, but externally fawn-tinted above, and 

 whitish below and on the limbs : some hairs on the back tipt with black 

 beneath a subrufous ring. Tail white, with a grey blue strip towards the 

 back. Apparent size of the last. HaUtatt, the snowy region of the 

 Hemalaya, and perhaps also Tibet. 



Hares of the first species are exceedingly abundant in the Nipalese 

 Tarai and British districts near it, but less so in the mountains, though 

 there also they may be found in most districts wherein the declivities 

 of the mountains are not very precipitous nor wholly covered with dense 

 forest. Hares love the lower and more level tracts within the mountains, 

 where grassy open spots are interspersed with copsewood under which 

 they may safely rest and breed; for in the mountains the hare never 

 resorts to holes or burrows; nor, I believe, voluntarily in the plains, 

 though I have heard the assertion that it does so. In the plains patches 

 of grass interspersed with cultivation are the favourite resorts of this 

 species, or Jhow shrubberies fringing the banks of nullahs, where, occasion- 

 ally the animals congregate in numbers wholly unknown to the moun- 

 tains. The Indian Hare, or Macrotus, breeds frequently during the whole 

 year, and produces usually two young ones at a birth. The young are 

 born with the eyes open, and furnished with teeth. In June 1 835 I took 

 two from the left horn of the uterus (none in the right) of a female ; and 

 these young, though unborn, had the eyes open, and the fur quite perfect. 

 In fact, the young follow their dam as soon as they are born. 



Cathmandoo, 

 February 1841. 



Nepal, March 1st, 1841. 

 The account of the Hares which I sent you was written currente calamo, 

 and without my being at the trouble to look (shame on me) at my own 

 Catalogue of Mammals apud Linnaean Transactions, where the Hare of 

 the plains is named Indicus, and that of the Himalaya (Emodius. These 

 names might do, and changes are bad : but tropical appellations are object- 

 ed to, and in the plains there is another Hare, Nigricollis, wherefore the 

 names affixed to my paper with you should perhaps stand ; but a note at 

 the foot of the page should identify them with Indicus et (Emodius respec- 

 tively of the Catalogue, thus : " These species are named respectively 

 Indicus and (Emodius in my published Catalogue. Nor perhaps was it 

 worth while to drop the local appellations, though Nigricollis constitute a 

 second species in the plains of India." 



B. Hodgson. 



