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Show 1905.] HARES FROM SOUTHERN SWEDEN. 287 to be true L. europceus. Whether the condition is different at other places in Scania, I do not know. The two species have not, as is well known, the same habits. The " German Hare " frequents open and cultivated fields, in which it seems to select and prefer the most fertile spots. Tbe Variable Have, again, gives preference to a landscape where forests or groves and shrub-covered hills alternate with pastures and cultivated fields*. These biological differences might perhaps result in a third kind of modus vivendi, viz., that either species may select its own suitable localities and " settle " there, without mixing any more with the other or interfering with the same on its own grounds, so to say. In such a way an explanation might be found for the fact that in other countries, where both these species of Hares occur side by side in a wild state, or where, at least partly, their areas of distribution overlap, so very few hybrid-crossings have been found, to judge from the available literature. Or is it probable that such hybrids are not so very uncommon ? In such a case they must have been overlooked, for the literature concerning similar cases is very scanty. In ‘ Zool. Garten ' + 0. von Loewis writes that he has seen at least a dozen such hybrids within 20 years in Livonia, and states that he has ascertained the correctness of this opinion through comparative measurements; but his narrative is confined to this, and he does not quote any measurements nor give any description. In Switzerland it appears that hybrids have been found between the Common Hare (L. europceus Pall.) and the Alpine Hare (Z. varronis Miller). At least parti-coloured specimens have been described as such by Tscliudi and others. Captain Th. C. zu Balden-stein described 1863+ a Hare which he had obtained in Dec. 1862 at Paspels in Switzerland, and which seems to have been most probably a hybrid, to judge from its colour and from the statement that the ears and tail were shorter than in L. europceus, with which the specimen otherwise agreed in size. There is, however, no description of the skull, so that it would have been fortunate if the case had been more fully proved, even if it must be admitted as very probable. * From this may be concluded that the food chosen by the two species is somewhat different, and that of L . europceus probably more tender. This again may serve as an explanation of the differences in the development of the masticating-apparatus of the species in question, that of L . europceus being somewhat weaker, with narrower zygomatic arch, &c. (conf. above). f Jahrg. 1877. j Jaliresber. d. naturf. Ges. Graubiindens, n. F. viii. Jahrg. P r o c . Z o o l . S o c .-1905, V o l . I. No. XIX. 19 |