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152 



THE MUSEUM. 



stands erect with ears pointed to the 

 zenith and surveys him at a safe dis- 

 tance and again lengthens out his trim 

 form and hugs the ground Hke a racer 

 until a mile away. Sometimes at 

 early morning or evening you may see 

 him skudding along the plain as if in 

 play, running two or three miles per- 

 haps at high speed. A fine runner he 

 is, too, and gifted with staying quali- 

 ties. It takes a good greyhound to 

 overtake the best of them, while the 

 slowest of them distance a common 

 dog at every bound." 



Black-tailed or Texan Jack Rabbit, 

 Lcpus tcxiaiius. Waterhouse. This 

 hare is pale gray above, often tinged 

 with brownish and mixed with black; 

 the lower surface of the tail and body 

 is white, while the tips of the ears 

 and upper part of the tail are dis- 

 tinctly marked with black. In length 

 it measures about 25^ inches and 

 weighs 4 or 5 lbs. The ears average 

 6| inches, but the tail is only 4^ in- 

 ches in length. The Black-tailed 

 Hare is smaller than either the Prairie 

 or Allen's Hare, but is about the same 

 size as the California Jack Rabbit. 

 Specimens from the southern border 

 of the United States are smaller and 

 paler than those found further north 

 and it has recently been proposed to 

 recognize three sub-species or races 

 along the Mexican boundary. They 

 have been named the Western Desert 

 Jack Rabbit, Lcpus tcxiamis dcscrti- 

 coln, Mearns, occurring on the Colo- 

 rado Desert and eastward to the Son- 

 oyta Valley Arizona; the Desert Hare, 

 Lcpus t. creiiiicus, Allen, of Southern 

 Arizona, and the Eastern Desert Jack 

 Rabbit, Lcpus t. griseus Mearns, 

 ranging from Grant Co , N. M., east- 

 ward to Maverick Co. ; Texas, and 

 southward in Coabuifa and Chibushua. 

 These forms are so closely related to 

 Lepus texiauus that they need not be 

 considered separately. The Black- 

 tailed Jack Rabbit is found in the 

 Great Basin from the Rocky Moun- 

 tains west to the Cascade range in 

 Oregon and to the Sierra Nevada in 



California and from Central Idaho and 

 southeastern Washington south to 

 Mexico. Its range extends eastward 

 into western Texas and some distance 

 down the Rio Grande. 



Referring to the habits of the 

 Black-tailed Jack Rabbit in Arizona, 

 Dr. Coues says: "At Fort Whipple 

 the species is very common the year 

 around and almost every sort of lo- 

 cality is frequented by them, though 

 they chiefly affect grass meadows and 

 open glades interspersed with copses 

 or clumps of oak trees or patches of 

 briery undergrowth. The gulches or 

 , washes' as they are called, leading 

 out of mountain ravines, and thickly 

 set with greasewood, are favorite re- 

 sorts. They feed much upon this 

 plant, and by their incessant cours- 

 ings through patches of it, they wear 

 little intersecting avenues, along which 

 they ramble at their leisure. When 

 feeding at their ease and unsuspicious 

 of danger, they move with a sort of 

 lazy abandom, performing a succession 

 of careless leaps, now nibbling the 

 shrubs overhead, now the grass at 

 their feet. They are not at all gre- 

 garious though peculiar attractions 

 niay bring them together in the same 

 spot. They do not burrow, but con- 

 struct a "form" in which they squat. 

 I do not think these are permanent; 

 but rather that they are extemporized, 

 as wanted, in some convenient bush; 

 though the case may be different dur- 

 ing the period of reproduction. It has 

 been stated by some authors that only 

 two or three are produced at a birth, 

 which I know to be at least not al- 

 ways the case, having found as many 

 as six embryos in one female. In the 

 attitude of Fort Whipple the young 

 are brought forth in June. 



Black-eared Jack Rabbit or East- 

 ern Jackass Hare. 



[Lcpus mclanotis Mearns.) 



The Black-eared Jack Rabbit was 

 described only seven years ago, in 



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