REMARKS ON THE GENUS LEPUS. 91 
in any museum that I have had an opportunity of 
examining, is one of the most singular hares that 
has ever fallen under my notice. If the form is in- 
dicative of character, this animal, from its slender 
body, long hind legs, and great length of tarsus, 
must be one of the swiftest among the hares. 
Should the species referred to by Lewis and Clarke, 
which could clear twenty-one feet at a bound, be the 
Lepus campestris of a former article, it will, to all 
appearances, find no contemptible opponent in a 
trial of speed with its next door neighbor, the pre- 
sent species. 
Characters . — Size of the northern hare, (L. ame- 
ricanus.) Ears, tail, legs, and tarsus, very long. 
Color above light gray ; beneath white. 
Color . — Crown of the head, cheeks, neck, and 
whole upper parts, the front of the ears and legs, 
externally, gray, with a feint cream-colored wash. 
Hairs whitish, or silver-gray at base ; then brown- 
ish white, then black, with a faint cream tinge, and 
ultimately tipt with black, interspersed with long 
silky hairs, some of which being wholly black. Chin, 
throat, whole under surface, interior of legs, the 
whole of the tail, (with the exception of a narrow 
dark line on the top,) pure white to the roots. 
Irides light hazel, around the eyes white. The 
tips of the back parts of the ears black ; the exter- 
nal two-thirds of the hinder part of the ears white, 
running down the back part of the neck, and there 
mingling with the color of the upper surface ; the 
interior third of the outer portion of the ear the 
same gray color as the back, fringed on the edge 
