tarsi are pale rufous brown; ears externally mouse brown,
blackish-brown on the posterior portion near the tip, the anterior
edges white, with rather longer hairs, except near the tip, where
the hair is short and black; the posterior margins inside pale
isabelline, the pale edge becoming broader near the tip; tail black
above, white on the sides and below; whiskers black near the base,
white except in the shorter ones throughout the greater part of their
length; a pale line from the nose, including the eye, continued back
nearly to the ear (Blanford's 'Eastern Persia,' vol. ii. p. 81, with
plate).

SIZE.--Head and body, 15 inches; tail, with hair, 4.5 inches; ear,
6 inches; breadth of ear laid flat, 3.25 inches.

This is a new species, described and named by Mr. W. T. Blanford.

NO. 417. LEPUS HISPIDUS.
_The Hispid Hare_.

HABITAT.--The Terai and low forests at the base of the Himalayas.

DESCRIPTION.--"General colour dark or iron grey, with an embrowned
ruddy tinge, and the limbs shaded outside, like the body, with black,
instead of being unmixed rufous" (_Hodgson_). The inner fur is soft,
downy, and of an ash colour, the outer longer, hispid, harsh and
bristly. Some of the hairs ringed black and brown, others are pure
black and long, the latter more numerous; ears short and broad.

SIZE.--Head and body, 19-1/2 inches; tail, with hair, 2-1/8 inches;
ears, 2-3/4 inches.

This animal seems to be a link between the hares and the rabbits.
Like the latter, it burrows, and has more equal limbs; but, according
to Hodgson, it is not gregarious, but lives in pairs. It would greatly
help in the identification of its position if some one would procure
the young or a gravid female, and see whether the young are born blind
and naked as in the rabbits, or open-eyed and clad with fur as in
the hares. Jerdon says it is common at Dacca, and is reported to be
found also in the Rajmehal hills, and that its flesh is stated to
be white, like that of the rabbit.

FAMILY LAGOMYIDAE--THE PIKAS, OR MOUSE-HARES.

One or two premolars above and below; grinding teeth as in
_Leporidae_; skull depressed; the frontals are contracted, without
the wing-like processes of the hares; a single perforation in the
facial surface of the maxillaries; a curious prolongation of the
posterior angle of the malar into a process extending almost to the
ear tube, or auditory meatus; the basisphenoid is not perforated and
separated from the vomer as i