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feet, and doubtless this is no exaggeration. Yet this is a 

 matter shared by the allied species, and I do not think 

 that the present surpasses L. callotis for example, in this 

 respect. The two animals have always seemed to me alike 

 in their powers of running and leaping. It is difficult 

 to give one who has not seen the animals alive an idea 

 of their singular appearance when at full speed, and the 

 ground they get over in a few seconds is the more re- 

 markable, considering the force they waste in unnecessary 

 height of the leaps. The first sign one has usuallj' of a 

 hare which has squatted low in hopes of concealment, till 

 its fears force it to fly, is a great bound into the air, with 

 lengthened body and erect ears. The instant it touches 

 the ground, it is up again, with a peculiar springy jerk, 

 more like the rebounding of an elastic ball than the result 

 of muscular exertion. It does not come fairly down, and 

 gather itself for the next spring, but seems to hold its legs 

 stiffly extended, to touch only its toes, and rebound by 

 the force of its impact. The action is strikingly sugges- 

 tive of the "bucking" of a mule, an aflair with which 

 people in the west are only too familiar. With a succes- 

 sion of these high jerky leaps the animal makes off gener- 

 ally in a straight course ; there is nothing of the dodging 

 aud scuttlins: about that marks the running of the smaller 

 rabbits. As it gains on its pursuers, and its fears subside, 

 the springs grow weaker, just as a flat stone "skipped" on 

 the water diminishes in length of the rebounds, and finally 

 the animal squats in its tracks on its haunches with a jerk, 

 to look and listen. If perfectl}^ reassured, it may then 

 lope on with easy steps, till it is out of sight, or it may 

 squat low and disappear by folding back its ears behind 

 some bunch of weeds. The ears, b}^ tlie way, are curi- 

 ously the most conspicuous part of the whole animal ; few 

 hares are seen, I fancy, as long as they keep those great 



