THE FAMILY OF HARES AND RABBITS 



{Leporida) 



HERE is a great deal of popular confusion between the terms " hares " and 

 " rabbits." To most people they mean the same thing; when as a matter 

 of scientific fact they are two separate groups, each with its own well-defined 

 species. This distinction is all the harder to make because the two animals 

 have long been given interchangeable names. For example, our Jack Rabbits 

 and Snowshoe Rabbits are not Rabbits, but Hares. On the other hand, 

 the animals known as the Swamp Hare and the Pygmy Hare belong to the 

 Rabbit group, as do the " Cottontails." In the case of the Jack Rabbits, 

 the erroneous name has now been in use for more than half a century. As 

 long ago as 185 1, Audubon and Bachman, writing of a species found along 

 the Mexican border, said: "This species is called the jackass rabbit in 

 Texas, owing to the length of its ears." For the same reason, in certain parts of California 

 they have been called " narrow-gauge mules " and " small mules." At this late day it is 

 just as useless to attempt to change the name of the Jack Rabbit as it is to try to persuade 

 the public to adopt the name Bison for the Buffalo; but it should be borne in mind that 

 the Jack Rabbit is not a Ralibit, but a Hare. 



There are certain well-defined characteristics by which Hares can be distinguished 

 from Rabbits. The former never make burrows, but live in " forms " or nests of a kind 

 (in which the young are brought forth), and are long-eared, long-legged, and swift-footed 

 animals, the hind legs being considerably elongated. Rabbits proper have short ears, are 

 short-legged, cannot maintain much speed for any great distance, and all of them make more 

 or less use of burrows — frequently the abandoned homes of other animals — or of sheltering 

 tree-roots, rocks, or similar places. Some of the species make their own burrows or tunnels. 

 The young of Hares are born with a well-developed coat of hair and with their eyes open; 

 baby Rabbits are born naked and with closed eyes. 



Hares and Rabbits are among the best known of American animals. They range from 

 northern Greenland to Patagonia and over the entire breadth of the two continents. Some 

 of the species are to be found on the prairies, others make their homes in coverts and woods; 

 some live in deserts where is little food and less water, others have their habitat in swamps 

 and marshes; some roam the plains, others are to be found at altitudes of 14,000 feet or 

 more above sea-level; and through all the gradations of temperature, from 30 degrees or 

 more below zero to 140 degrees above, they seem to thrive and multiply. They reach their 

 greatest abundance, however, in a stretch of country which Mr. E. W. Nelson, in his book 

 " The Rabbits of North America," calls the " American Desert Plateau region." This 

 region extends in a northerly and southerly direction from the northern United States to 

 central Mexico, is about 2,000 miles in length, and has a maximum width of about 800 

 miles. 



The coat of the Hare and the Rabbit corresponds, as to density and length, to the mild- 

 ness or severity of the climate. In the Far North the Greenland Hare has a long, dense, 

 woolly coat, while in southern Mexico the Tehuantepec Cottontail has a thin, short, and 

 rather coarse pelage. The color of these animals also responds to climatic influences. Some 

 of the species, which have two annual molts, are white in winter and dark in summer; but 

 in Northern Greenland the Hare remains white throughout the year. The coat itself is 

 made up of three sets of hairs: " (i) a fine, short, and dense underfur; (2) a longer, thinner, 

 and coarser coat of hairs, the tips of which overlie and conceal the under-fur; and (3) a 

 still longer, coarser, and more sparsely distributed set of hairs, the tips of which overlie 

 the shorter middle coat." 



[-741 



