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Show 1899.] ON HARES FROM BRITISH EAST AFRICA. 415 rnent, and took the greatest care of tbe chicks, as if everything was as it should have been. The little birds grew extremely fast, so that at the age of seven weeks they were almost of the size of the parents, fully feathered, and able to fly. These first feathers presented a brownish slaty-grey colour all over the bird, the wing-coverts and tertiaries having lighter edges, the whole of the plumage being very glossy. The legs and bills, which had gradually turned from black into grey, now began to show* signs of assuming the pinkish colour proper to the adult bird of this species. On the bills the pink became visible in stripes or lines. At the age of eleven weeks the heads got white feathers and the brownish body-feathers began to be replaced, especially at the sides, by the more bluish-grey ones of the adult Cassin's Snow- Goose. At the present time (February 3rd, 1899) the heads are nearly white and the rest of the bodies are nearly moulted, the brownish-grey feathers being replaced by bluish-grey ones; so there is little doubt but that they will assume the typical plumage of Chen ccerulescens without any undue mixture of white. As when two good species cross, the offspring nearly always presents the mixed appearance of the parents, I consider this result of the interbreeding of m y Blue and White Snow-Geese as an additional proof, if such were wanted, of the non-validity of the White and Blue Snow-Geese as separate species. The two forms being only colour-variations, there was no reason for a mixed coloration in the offspring. The young have simply taken the colour which is probably most adapted to the circumstances under which the birds live. In this case it was the plumage of Chen ccerulescens. Judging from these facts, I also think it probable that the intermediate forms which are found in North America in a wild state are not so much the result of the interbreeding of the typical White and Blue forms, as the produce of a range of country where the circumstances which formed the White or Blue forms are not sufficiently pronounced. 3. On two Hares from British East Africa, obtained by Mr. Richard Crawshay. By W . E. D E W I N T O N , F.Z.S. [Eeceived March 6th, 1899.] (Blate XXIV.) Mr. Bichard Crawshay, who is so well known as a traveller and contributor to our knowledge of the fauna of Africa, has lately sent to the National Collection two Hares from British East Africa. One of these belongs to an already described but little known species, hitherto recorded only from North-eastern Somaliland ; the other is a very distinct and apparently undescribed form, which I propose to name, in honour of the collector, Lepus craivshayi. |