1845.] a new Genus of Leporine Mammalia, 249 



skin from which the description has been drawn up, I learn that the 

 animal was killed on the right bank of the river Teestah, close under 

 the saul forest, and about six miles north of Jelpee Goree. In this 

 place they are said to be very scarce, not above four having been seen 

 by Mr. Russell's party during ten days, though game of all other 

 kinds was met with in great plenty ; and the following year the same 

 party killed only one. But towards the hills, as Mr. Russell was told 

 by the natives of that part of the country, they may be met with in 

 greater abundance. Of the habits of this animal little is known. Mr. 

 Russell states, that • its flesh is white, and eats very much the same as 

 that of the Rabbit' ; and from the circumstance of his never having 

 succeeded in putting one up a second time, he is almost certain that 

 it burrows. It is called by the natives of the country, where it was 

 met with, by the same name that they give to the Hare." 



Mr. R. W. G. Frith, upon examining the Society's specimen, be- 

 lieves it to be the same animal as has been very often described to him 

 by sportsmen, who have on several occasions been shooting in the ex- 

 tensive sai jungle in the district of Mymunsing, called the Muddapore 

 jungle, on the western or right bank of the Burrampooter river ; but 

 he never chanced to meet with it himself, though he long ago called 

 my attention to the existence of such an animal in that part. 



It is included in Messrs. McClelland and Horsfield's list of the 

 Mammalia of Assam, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1839, p. 152, but with the 

 statement that the ears are " very short, not projecting beyond the 

 fur," which is either a mistake, or another species is alluded to; 

 though I believe the former to be the truth : Mr. McClelland remarking, 

 " I am indebted to Lieut. Vetch of Assam for the skin of this animal, 

 but unfortunately the skull is wanting. According to Mr. Pearson, 

 however, it is the same as the skull of the common Hare. It inhabits 

 Assam, especially the northern parts of the valley along the Bootan 

 Mountains." The differences of the skull from that of any Lepus 

 have been already adverted to. 



I propose that it should bear the generic name Caprolagus, and be 

 accordingly styled C. hispidus, (Pearson,) nobis. 



