Bangs.l 410 fl^e<^- ■"• 
above). Tlio color of all three of these (tlie two Peterboro and 
the Toronto specimens) is a trifle darker than typical mearnsi. 
They all have the large, bushy tail so characteristic of mearnsi.'^ 
The skulls of the two Peterboro examples are ti-ue 7nearnsi.^ 
T can find no locality w^here Lepus syhHtticnH tra»sitio7ialis 
and L. sylvaticus mearnsi come together, and 1 think the 
Alleghany Mountains rising from the western bank of the 
Hudson River form an impassable barrier between these two 
northern forms of Lepvs sylvaticus. Both, however, pass into 
true L. sylvaticus at the southern part of their respective ranges. 
In all the cotton-tails T have examined I find but few inter- 
mediates between sylvaticus and transitionalis. One from 
ZeUenople, Pa., No. 892, Bangs coll., is a perfect intergrade, 
lacking; the black mark betAveen the ears of frai/sitionalis but 
1 As this article goes to print I have just received a letter from Mr. (Jerrit S. 
Miller, .Jr., of Peterboro. N. Y., which, as it substantiates with facts my coniecturc 
coiu'.erning the presence of Lfpiis sylvaticus mparnsi in Central New York. 1 
l)ublish entire. 
"Peterboro, N. Y., Dec. 30, 1894. 
'■ I have been looklus up the history of the cotton-tail in this region and have 
found some facts that you may think worth inserting in your pajier. 
" My father tells me that when he was in school in New Jersey, back in the fifties, 
he saw cotton-tails there and noticed that they were different from the rabbit [the 
northern hare ] that he had been used to seeing here. He was much surprised a few 
years later to And them common about the farm. 
•• All the hunters here say that the cotton-tails appeared about twenty years ago. 
Some of the men say they remember when the lirst ones ai>peared. and all have 
' hearn tell ' of the fact. 
" My best evidence is from a man named Wilson who came to this part of the 
country in 18.31, and has lived within fifteen miles of Peterboro ever since. He was 
a hunting companion of my uncle Green Smith, and lived on his place as foreman 
for ten or fifteen years, so we all know that he is perfectly reliable. Every winter 
he used to go west to Ohio or Michigan hunting for market. Out there he got well 
acfjuainted with cotton-tails, so he knows what he is talking about. 
" The first cotton-tail that he ever saw in New York State was in 1870 or l.STl :it 
Geneva, 60 miles west of here. He wi'ote me in detail the circumstances connected 
with the killing of this rabbit. He was hunting with my uncle ( who then lived in 
Geneva ), and both were greatly surprised at seeing one of these animals so far east. 
Since then they have increased rapidly. 
" As Wilson was living at Oneida at the time when my uncle was at (ieneva 
( Oneida is only ten miles away from Peterboro ). his seeing the first cotton-tail at 
Geneva is certainly evidence that the animal came from the west. There is no 
question in my mind that the cotton-tails have worked in during the last twenty 
years. .Just why they waited so long I don't see, for the country hereabouts, at 
least, must have been fit for them long before. 
[Signed] (iuKRiT S. Miller, .Jr." 
*The skulls of syivaticits and mearnsi, as stated above, cannot be separated exce))t 
by size, while the skull of transitionalis can readily be distinguished in nearly every 
instance. 
