BANGS: LAND MAMMALS OF FLORIDA AND GEORGIA. 173 
Cranial characters. Skull similar to that of D. virginiana 
typica hut smaller. 
Skull. The type : basal length, 97.4; zygomatic breadth, 57.2 ; 
interorbital constriction, 20; greatest constriction behind postorbital 
processes, 10.8; greatest length of single half of mandible, 83. 
General remarks. The opposum is subject to a great range of 
individual variation in size, but the difference in proportion between 
the two races is constant. 
D. virginiana pigra is extremely abundant throughout Florida 
and extends up the whole coastal strip of Georgia, probably passing 
into true virginiana somewhere in the Carolinas. It is very similar 
to true virginiana in general appearance, from which its smaller 
size, much longer and more slender tail, and smaller hind foot 
distinguish it. I have specimens from many places in Florida and 
Georgia. 
Lepus (Limnolagus) palustris palustris Bachman. 
Lepus palustris Bachman, Jour. Acad. nat. sci. Phila., 1837, 
p. 194, 336. 
Type locality. Eastern South Carolina. 
The large Carolina marsh rabbit is common all over eastern 
Georgia, including the Sea Islands, and begins to grade towards the 
Florida form in northern Florida. Specimens from St. Mary’s, 
Georgia, are clearly referable to L. palustris typicus , having the long 
rostrum and narrow nasals of that form, but in their smaller size and 
shorter ears approach X. paludicola. Specimens from Gainesville, 
Florida, and Anastasia Island are about alike and are intermediate 
between the two races. 
The marsh rabbit is most abundant in the salt marshes of the 
coast, where it occurs in great numbers, but is very common also in 
fresh-water swamps and marshes, and in hummocks. In marshes 
it makes beaten runways along which it occasionally darts with 
astonishing rapidity. It takes to the water readily and swims well, 
the ears and top of the head alone showing above water, with the 
fore feet splashing in front. Seeing one swimming thus for the first 
time no one would think that it was a rabbit. 
Mr. Brown took the marsh rabbit on all the Sea Islands that lie 
collected on. On St. Catherine’s Island they were rare, and he got 
but one specimen, a not quite fully grown female, No. 6,173. This 
