248 Description of Caprolagus, £No. 160. 



The skull is much more solid and strong than in any Lepus, with 

 every modification that should contribute to increased strength, but 

 upon the same subtypical model of conformation ; dentition also simi- 

 lar, but the grinders broader and more powerful, and the incisors and 

 rodential tusks proportionally much larger : the palatal foramina are 

 reduced so that the bony palate is as long as broad ; the ant-orbital 

 foramina are nearly closed by obliquely transverse bony spiculse, cor- 

 responding to the open bony network observable in Lepus ; the nasal 

 bones are broad, with an evenly arched transverse section, and are 

 less elongated backward than in the true Hares, — the maxillaries and 

 intermaxillaries corresponding in their greater width and solidity ; 

 zygoma also fully twice as strong as in Lepus ; the super-orbital pro- 

 cesses continued forward uninterruptedly, the anterior emargination 

 seen in the Hares being quite filled up with bone, while the posterior 

 is also much less deep : the ensemble of these distinctions is, however, 

 far better expressed by the pencil than by the pen, and the reader is 

 accordingly referred to the accompanying figures of the skull of this 

 animal, in different aspects of view. 



What little is known of its essential anatomy is, as might be expect- 

 ed, identical, or nearly so, with that of typical Lepus. Mr. Pearson 

 notices that ii the mammae are from six to ten ; ccecum very large, ap- 

 parently almost like a second stomach'; womb double." 



The length of the Society's specimen as mounted, and as represent- 

 ed in the annexed figure, is, in a straight line from nose to tail- tip, 

 fifteen inches and a half ; ears posteriorly two inches ; tail with hair 

 scarcely one and a half; tarsus to end of claws three and three-quar- 

 ters; entire length of skull the same: fur of two kinds, that next the 

 body short, delicately soft and'downy, and of an ashy hue ; the longer 

 and outer fur harsh and hispid, and consisting partly of hairs annu- 

 lated with black and yellowish-brown, and partly of longer black hairs, 

 all the black having rather a bright gloss : lower parts paler or dingy 

 whitish : toes somewhat yellowish-white : fur of the tail rufescent 

 above and below, except near its base underneath, and not of the same 

 harsh texture as the body fur. 



Mr. Pearson, in his original description of this species, remarks as 

 follows: "From the notes of Mr. C. D. Russell, who sent the stuffed 



