410 LEPORIDJE. 



young are born underground, naked, blind, and helpless. These 

 animals inhabit districts varying greatly in their conditions and 

 situations. Some seek swamps, marshes, or dense thickets, like the 

 southern canebrakes, and are partly aquatic ; others delight in woods, 

 bushy coverts, and tangled depths; while still others are at home 

 only in the snow-covered northern wastes, or the wide wind-swept 

 prairies or desert expanse. In the northern portion of the western 

 hemisphere the greater portion of these animals are found, and the 

 largest species occur in the extreme north and on the plains, and are 

 represented by the Arctic Hares and Jack Rabbits. Certain species 

 turn white in winter in districts where there are heavy falls of snow, 

 the white coat assimilating with the snow, and affording concealment 

 to the animal. This change, however, does not always occur 

 throughout the range of every species, as witnessed by the Washing- 

 ton Hare, L. Washington*, which is a white animal in winter in its 

 northern range, while in the more southern part of its dispersion, 

 about Puget Sound, it does not turn white in winter, the moderate 

 snow fall in that section not making a white coat necessary for 

 protection. On the contrary, an animal of such a color would be, 

 probably, all the more conspicuous. Hares are remarkable for their 

 lengthened ears and hind legs, and in some species these characters 

 are carried to an extreme, but all members of the family have the 

 hind legs considerably elongated, and it is by them that the great 

 leaps made in flight are accomplished. Hares and Rabbits are 

 absolutely without defense, flight (aided by a low order of strategy, 

 illustrated by doubling on its tracks) being their only means of 

 escape from their enemies. They are, however, always on the watch, 

 their large eyes roving constantly over every object in range of their 

 vision, and the long ears constantly in motion, attentive to every 

 sound. Innumerable enemies of the earth and air are continually 

 seeking their destruction, and it is only its amazing fecundity that 

 enables the race to survive. The fore legs are very short, and are 

 never used as hands, as is the case with many rodents, and although 

 in the feeble combats indulged in by Hares, the fore feet may occa- 

 sionally be used to strike an adversary, they are capable of inflicting 

 only very slight injuries. Compared with many rodents, the teeth 

 of Hares are weak, but they commit much damage with such as 

 they have, gnawing trees, shrubs, etc., and are very destructive to 

 growing crops, vegetables, and also to ornamental plants. The 

 members of this family possess more teeth than those of any other 

 among the rodents, and they are remarkable for having at birth 

 three pairs of incisors in the upper jaw, the second pair small and 

 placed behind the middle large pair. The second outer pair early 



