NO. 517] 



NOTES AND LITERATURE 



63 



The "directive coloration" plate slums two specimens of a Mex- 

 ican species of jack rabbit, which 1ms white sides and a dark 

 huffy mantle covering the hack. One figure shows the mantle 

 in its usual position, the other with the mantle ''shifted to the 

 opposite side and the whitish area of the side drawn up nearly 

 or quite to the dorsal line," the animal being then in the act 

 of "signalling." This extraordinary feat is described at length 

 on page 115, where it is said that "By means of muscles the 

 skin of either side can be drawn over the back at will." Mr. 

 Nelson further states that on one occasion one of these rabbits 

 observed by him kept the "white area in the same position until 

 it had traveled 50 or 60 yards, when the colors slowly resumed 

 their normal positions." 



Despite the slight criticisms we have felt called upon to make, 

 Mr. Nelson's "The Rabbits of North America" marks an era in 

 the history of the group, and is so comprehensive and so well 

 done that it must long remain the basis for future work, to be 

 corrected doubtless in many minor details as new material is re- 

 ceived, but nevertheless a boon to all workers in North American 

 mammalogy. 



J. A. Allen. 



American Museum of Natural History. 



