A NEW SPECIES OF HARE. 115 
Lepus Bairdii Hayden, Baird's hare. — Summer dress : 
General color gray, glossed behind, especially on the rump, 
with sooty black; feet and tail, and the edges of the eats 
white, the latter not darker at tip. Nape sooty. In winter 
pure white. Length to base of tail about sixteen inches (tail 
mutilated). Ear three inches high ; hind feet six inches long. 
This interesting new species of Alpine hare, as far as our 
Observations extend, is confined to the Wind River Moun- 
tains, where it is by no means rare, and forms a charac- 
teristic feature of the landscape, its unusually broad feet 
expanding with each step, forming a set of veritable snow- 
shoes, enabling it to pass rapidly over the surface of the 
snow without sinking. It is readily distinguished from 
Townsend's Hare, or the Missouri Jackass Rabbit by its 
smaller size, much shorter ears, and different colors. It is 
considerably larger than L. sylvaticus and artemisia, with 
disproportionately large feet and sooty nape, being neither 
chestnut nor reddish. In some respects it resembles Lepus 
campestris of the Hudson Bay country, which, however, is 
more like Z. sylvaticus, although much grayer, and like L. 
Bairdii, with a sooty nape. It is, perhaps, with the true 
Polar Hare ( Lepus glacialis) that it is to be compared the 
most properly. Its summer dress is much the same, but it 
is much smaller, and lacks the black tips of the ears. The 
hind feet are, however, of nearly the same size. 
This hare seems to be restricted to a comparatively small. 
area on the summits of these mountains, near Fremont's 
Peak, about longitude 1109, and latitude 439, so far as our 
present knowledge extends; and its natural habitat appears 
be among the perpetual snows, from which it descends at 
pleasure to the little open spots on the slope for its food. If 
it were widely distributed it could not so long have eluded 
€ observations of so many travellers who have erossed these 
Mountains before and since 1860. But at this immediate 
locality it appeared to be abundant. It subsists on grass, 
but is very fond of the bark, buds and leaves of small 

