290 



MAMMALS OF AMERICA 



Their favorite food in summer is the inner 

 bark of young trees and shrubs, green twigs, 

 leaves, buds, and berries. As they do not store 

 up food for the winter and do not hibernate, they 

 eke out a rather scanty subsistence in the cold 

 season from occasional wild rose or other hardy 

 berries, and the bark of bushes. By spring they 

 are lean and continually hungry. Indeed, they 

 never seem to get enough to eat. 



These Rabbits breed rapidly, often raising 

 three litters in one year. As there are from four 

 to six young at a birth, they would rapidly be- 



nest, while small and helpless. But they speedily 

 gain strength and agility. 



The Ncxc England Cottontail ranges the New 

 England States to Maine and southwest to Vir- 

 ginia : also along the .\lleghenies through \\'est 

 \^irginia to Northern Georgia. It is of a size 

 about equaling the Florida Cottontail, and differs 

 from all other species in the almost uniform 

 ]iinkish buff of its upper parts. It is increasing 

 its range, and in certain parts of Vermont is 

 slowly driving out the Varying Hare. 



Audubon's, or Sacramento J'allcv Cottontail. 



Photograph by the U. S. Biological Sur^'ey 



EASTERN COTTONTAIL 



This Rabbit and its kindred form a very large family, found in nearly every State in the Union. There are 27 species 



and subspecies north of the Rio Grande 



come a menace, if not kept in check by larger 

 animals and birds of prey. 



The species most common east of the Alle- 

 gheny Mountains from Long Island and the 

 lower Hudson Valley south to Florida is the 

 Eastern Cottontail. It is yellowish-brown lined 

 with black above ; throat yellowish-gray : fore 

 legs and outside of hind legs rusty ; under parts 

 white ; tail yellowish-brown above, and white 

 beneath. The females of this and most of the 

 other species make soft, warm nests of fine grass, 

 leaves and other vegetable material, lined with 

 hair from their own bodies, and in these the 

 young are born and lie concealed, like mice in a 



the typical Western Cottontail, is found in the 

 interior of north-central California from Sac- 

 ramento Valley to San Joaquin Valley, and 

 reaches the coast on the east and south sides of 

 San Francisco Bay. It is a rather large Rabbit, 

 dark ochraceous brown on the upper parts, and 

 with most of the under parts pure white. It is 

 characteristic of arid open plains, where it occu- 

 pies not only the deserted holes of other mam- 

 mals, and crevices in stone walls and rocky 

 ledges, but even the space under floors of out- 

 buildings about ranches. Families of six and 

 eight of this species were found by Nelson living 

 under deserted ranch houses. 



