MAMMALIA. 



35 



Family— LEPORID^l. 

 Bennett's Hare. — Lepus Bennettii. 



Plate XIV. 

 Lepus Bennettii, Gray, List Mam. Brit. Mus. 129. 



Reddish grey, varied with black ; head paler. Throat, lower part of shoulders, front of thighs, 

 feet, hinder-side of tail and beneath, pale rufous. Tail alone black. Ears longer than the 

 head, black tipped. Small spots on the middle of the forehead white. 



Inhab. California. 



The fur is very soft, of moderate length. The hair of the back and sides is 

 pale grey, or dove-coloured, with a broad black band above, and reddish-grey tips, 

 about as broad as the black bands. The hair of the head is shorter, darker at the 

 base, and with narrower black bands. The ears are very long and broad, consider- 

 ably longer than the head, covered externally with short close-set brown grisled 

 hair, and fringed with rufous hair on the front edge, and with black at the tip. 

 The under-sides of the feet are covered with dense rufous hair. The tail is rather 

 long. The hinder part of the belly and the chin are whitish. The upper cutting 

 teeth rather narrow, with a deep longitudinal groove a little on the inner edge of 

 the tooth. 



In. Lin. 



Length of the body and head 20 



of the ears 5 3 



In. Lin. 



Length of the hind foot 4 6 



of the fore legs and foot 6 9 



This species is quite distinct from L. Californicus {Gray, Mag. Nat. Hist. 

 1836, 586.) and more resembles L. longicaudatus (Gray, 1. c. 586.) of Magellan, 

 in the peculiar colour of the hair. 



I have named it in honour of my late much esteemed friend, Edward Turner 

 Bennett, who, among the various species of animals which he so accurately and 

 elegantly described, has added a hare (£. nigricwudatus, Proc. of Zool. Soc. 

 1833, 41.) from the same country, which appears to be quite distinct from the 

 one under consideration. 



" This Hare exists in considerable numbers on the open hilly country which 

 surrounds the harbour of San Diego ; and, together with a rabbit and the Cali- 

 fornian quail, Ortyx Californicce, offered some amusement to our sportsmen, who, 

 indeed, were rather confounded by the abundance of their sport." — Ed. 



