PROCEEDINGS OF THE UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM issued B^^fVvi Ol^n by the SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION U S NATIONAL MUSEUM Vol. 100 Washington: 1950 No. 3265 MAMAIALS OF NORTHERN COLOMBIA PRELIMINARY REPORT NO. 6: RABBITS (LEPORIDAE), WITH NOTES ON THE CLASSIFICATION AND DISTRIBUTION OF THE SOUTH AMERICAN FORMS By Philip Hershkovitz Rabbits collected by the author in northern Colombia during his tenure of the Walter Rathbone Bacon Traveling Scholarship include 18 tapitis representing Sylvilagus brasiliensis and 73 cottontails repre-senting Sylvilagus Jloridanus. The following review shows the above named to be the only recognizably vahd species of leporids indigenous to South America. All North and South American rabbits in the collection of the United States National Museum and the Chicago Natural History Museum were compared in preparing this report. Examples of Neotropical rabbits from other institutions, given below, were also examined. Available material included 34 of the 36 preserved types of South American rabbits. In the lists of specimens examined, the following abbreviations are used: A.M.N.H. American Museum of Natural History. B.M. British Museum (Natural History). CM. Carnegie Museum. C.N.H.M. Chicago Natural History Museum. M.N. H.N. Mus6um National d'Histoire Naturelle, Paris. U.M.M.Z. University of Michigan Museum of Zoology. U.S.N. M. United States National Museum. Z.M.T. Zoological Museum, Tring. 853011—50 1 327
Mammals of northern Colombia, preliminary report No. 6 : Rabbits (Leporidae), with notes on the classification and distribution of the South American forms