RODENTIA-LEPORIDAE-LEPUS SYLVATICUS. 
599 
In a large series of rabbits, from Iowa and Wisconsin, I find the average size considerably 
greater than in tbe eastern States. There is a greater mixture of black on the back, where the 
general colors also are grayer. The upper part of the tail is grayish. The fur beneath the 
tips of the long hairs of rather a sooty plumbeous tinge, instead of the decided yellowish brown 
of the eastern rabbit. The ears are more densely furred ; the inner and outer bands mixed 
gray, brown, and black ; the cavity of the ear grayish white ; the back of the ear ashy white ; a 
black margin encircles the dorsal surface of the ear, beginning a little above the anterior root, 
and extending some distance round the tip. Notwithstanding the larger size, the ears appear 
absolutely shorter than in the other. The white of the belly, too, appears more restricted. 
Specimens from the southern States are rather smaller than those from Washington city, and 
have the fur harsher and coarser, the ears thinner. Winter specimens show a greater amount 
of black on the back than in those from Washington. This is also seen on the cheeks below 
the ears. 
The transition to the L. artemisia is very gradual, and, in the case of several specimens from 
the upper Missouri, I find it very difficult, if not impossible, to decide to which species they 
belong. This is rendered the more difficult, from the fact that the western specimens of L. 
sylvaticus are more gray in color than the eastern ones, this being the color of artemisia also. 
It is not a little remarkable that this, one of the best known animals of North America, 
should not have received a distinct scientific name until 1837, when Dr. Bachman, to whose 
critical investigations so much of the accuracy of our present knowledge of North American 
species is due, gave to it the name of L. sylvaticus. The full history of the species will be found 
detailed at length in the articles of Dr. Bachman, as quoted above. I will only remark, in 
reference to the citation of L. nanus oi Schreber, that, while, from the unquestionable mingling of 
the characters of L. americanus and sylvaticus in its diagnosis and description, it cannot be taken 
as tbe name of the latter species, yet that the detailed description belongs mostly to sylvaticus. 
Most of this was derived from the article of Schoepf, with unnecessary interpolations from 
Forster and Pennant. The animal of Schoepf refers entirely to the L. sylvaticus , as will be 
clearly evident from the translation I give below -, 1 that of the two first mentioned authors, to 
the L. americanus. The diagnosis of Schreber applies exclusively to L. americanus. 
J-Der Nord-Amerikanische Haase beschrieben von Johann David Schopf. Der Naturforscher, 20 Stuck, Halle, 1784. 
[Written at New York, (March ?) 1783.] 
The North American hare has universally been confounded with the common European hare, (Lepus timidus, L.,) which, 
however, is not found at all in this country, and differs greatly from the first named in more than one particular. Even 
Kalm considered it merely as a smaller variety of the European hare, which was, perhaps, the reason why Linnmus makes 
no mention of the American species. 
The people of this country have no fixed name for the species, calling it sometimes hare, and sometimes rabbit. I have, 
however, learned from various hunters that it is everywhere the same, and that they have never met with any animal 
similar to the European hare. The greatest length of a full grown specimen seldom equals, or never exceeds, 1J foot, the 
weight being about or at most 3 pounds. 
