1884.] Zovlogy. 1055 
) 
nostrils; but otherwise the appearance of the animal was as life- 
like as when I first saw it. At various times thereafter I exam- 
ined it, but only to discover no change to prove that death had 
taken place, until about the 15th day of March, when I discov- 
ered that putrefaction had set in; the body was then disposed of. 
The question with me now is, Did this gopher die upon his 
being changed from the temperature of the haystack to the exces- 
sive cold of the night and day following, or did he merely become 
affected sufficiently with the other changes that followed to pro- 
duce hemorrhage, and in this reduced condition did he not 
then have vitality enough to carry him through the hibernating 
condition, and died because wanting this power ?—D. H. Talbot. 
Tne Varyinc Hare.—This species derives its name from the 
well-known circumstance that it changes color in spring and fall 
—being dark reddish-brown in summer and snowy white in win» 
ter. Concerning the method of the change much difference of 
opinion exists, and some of the ablest of recent writers pass the 
point in silence, 
ennant says: “ These animals, at approach of winter, receive a 
new coat, which consists of a multitude of long white hairs, twice 
as long as the summer fur, which still remains beneath.” „Dr, 
Richardson stated that, in his opinion, “ the change to the winter 
dress takes place by a lengthening and blanching of the summer 
fur; whilst the change in the beginning of summer consists in the 
winter coat falling off during the growth of the new and colored 
fur.” This opinion comes very near the truth, but does not ex- 
press the whole truth. The first clause is absolutely correct; for 
in the fall the change certainly does occur “ by a lengthening and 
blanching of the summer fur,” the individual hairs changing color 
after the first fall of snow. This species, like the great majority of 
mammals, is clothed with two kinds of hair—a fine soft fur which 
densely covers all parts of the body, and longer, stiffer hairs, 
scatteed through, and projecting beyond the former. These long 
hairs are black in summer and white in winter. In the fall of the 
year, when the change begins, they become white at the tips first, 
the black gradually fading from above downwards, until the entire 
“ir is white. In spring the process is reversed, the exposed por- 
tion of the long hairs becoming black (though the extreme tip 
Sometimes remains white until the change is far advanced), which 
color gradually extends downward, at the expense of the white, 
until the entire hair is black. Sometimes the displacement of the 
White is temporarily interrupted, the two colors appearing 1n alter- 
nate zones. And during the latter part of March, when the body 
" the animal is still white, it is not uncommon to find hundreds 
of black hairs scattered over the back, many of them with the ex- 
treme apices, and a narrow zone between the middle and base, 
pea ; 
Arctic Zoology, Vol. 1, 1792, p. 110. Lepus americanus. 
