Rabbits and Hares 



V. Pocket mice (Family Heteromyidce). Slender mouse-like 



animals, many with hind legs much elongated, but with 



pouches on the sides of the face as in the gophers. 

 (Exclusively Western.) 



VI. Jumping mice ^Family Zapodidcc). Mouse-like animals, 

 with hind legs much elongated, progressing by long leaps; 

 tail very long exceeding the head and body. 



VII. Rats and mice ^Family Muridce). Hind legs little if any 

 longer than the front pair, the latter never modified like 

 those of moles, tail never longer than the head and body. 

 To this family belong all the mouse and rat-like animals 

 not included in IV, V and VI. 



VIII. Sewellels ^Family Aplodontiidaz.). Thick-set animals with 



very short tail and short ears, and a peculiar fiat skull 



somewhat like that of the beaver. (Exclusively Western.) 



IX. Beavers ^Family Castoridce). Tail curiously modified into 



a broad, flat, naked appendage. 



X. Squirrels and marmots (''Family Schindtf). Here belong all 

 the squirrel-like animals including the spermophiles and 

 chipmunks. They differ from the mice and their 

 allies in their bushy tails and many peculiarities in their 

 anatomical structure, an important one being that the two 

 lower leg bones are separate and not fused together as 

 in the mice, thus allowing them to use their limbs more 

 freely in climbing, a habit which is characteristic of a 

 majority of the species. (See cuts page 72.) 



RABBITS AND HARES 



(Family Leporidce) 



Rabbits are perhaps the most widely known of any of our 

 wild animals. As our commonest "game" they are familiar to 

 every gunner and equally so to those who are acquainted with 

 them only in the markets. Their distribution, too, is almost 

 universal and in America, from the polar regions to the tropics, 

 they exist in one form or another. Rabbits are also frequently 

 known as hares, and the careless usage of the two names has 

 given rise to much confusion in the popular mind as to just 

 what constitutes the difference between them. 



As a matter of fact the European rabbit, the parent stock 

 of all the various domestic breeds, is the only one properly en- 



73 



