294 NORTHERN ZOOLOGY, 
DESCRIPTION 
Of a Polar hare, three months old, killed on the 12th of August at Repulse Bay. 
The head and back are hoary, from an intermixture of hairs entirely black, with others 
which are black at the base and white at the tips. When these hairs are blown aside, they 
permit a shorter yellowish-gray down to be seen. On the breast, flanks, and thighs, the 
longer hairs have fewer white tips, and are more thinly scattered, allowing much of the down 
to become visible: the down on these parts has a bluish-gray colour. The belly, feet, and 
tail are entirely white. The hairs on the belly are very long. The ears have a similar colour 
with the back, but the proportion of black hairs is rather greater. Their margins are white, 
and there is a small brownish-black spot at their tips. 
DIMENSIONS. 
Inches. Lines. 
Length of the head and body . . . i ale 6 
5 55 «ears 5 . F 3 6 
A nearly mature foetal specimen was of a blackish-brown colour on all the 
upper parts and outsides of the extremities. 
! 
[70.] 3. Lepus Virainianus. (Harlan.) Prairie Hare. 
Varying Hare. Lewis and Ciarx, Journey, &c., vol. ii. p. 178. 
The Varying Hare? Gopman, Nat. Hist., vol. ii. p. 163. 
Lepus Virginianus. Harvan, Fauna, p. 312. 
Prairie Hare. Fur TRADERS. 
The servants of the North-west and Hudson’s Bay Companies have lone 
been acquainted with this animal, but it is still very imperfectly known to 
naturalists. The best account of it is contained in the narrative of Lewis 
and Clark’s interesting Journey to the Columbia; but Dr. Harlan first named 
it as a species distinct from the Lepus variabilis. It is a common animal on 
the plains through which the north and south branches of the Saskatchewan 
flow, and which extend as far eastward as the Winepegoosis and southern 
extremity of Winepeg lake, and to the southward, unite with the plains of 
the Missouri, where this hare is also found, as well as on the great plains of 
the Columbia. Ihave ‘not heard of its existing further north than latitude 55°. 
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