Jack Rabbit 



Cottontails of one form or another stretch all across our Con- 

 tinent and varying hares occur Westward in the boreal forests 

 just as they do in the East, but the distinctively Western member 

 of the hare tribe is the jack rabbit. From the Eastern border of 

 the plains to the shores of the Pacific there is scarcely any spot 

 where one form or another of the jack rabbit does not occur, 

 but farther East it is unknown. The white-tailed jack rabbit is 

 the one found on the Great Plains and upper part of the Great 

 Basin. Southward and partly overlapping is the range of the 

 Texan or black-tailed jack rabbit while in California is found still 

 another species. 



Living entirely in the open, jack rabbits are more than ever 

 dependent upon the protective colouration, speed and delicacy of 

 hearing which are so characteristic of the whole tribe. Dr. Coues 

 says, "The first sign one has usually 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, it does not come 

 fairly down and gather itself for the next spring but seems to 

 hold its legs stiffly extended, touch only its toes and rebound by 

 the force of its impact. As it gains on its pursuers, and its fears 

 subside, the springs grow weaker, and finally the animal squats 

 in its tracks on its haunches with a jerk, to look and listen. 

 One fore foot is advanced a little before the other, and the ears 

 are held pointing in opposite directions. The attitude at such 

 times is highly characteristic." 



For its home the jack rabbit has only an open "form" beneath 

 a bush or clump of weeds; here it sleeps in sunshine and storm 

 always on the alert for danger, ready to dash away on the instant. 

 When the "rabbit brush" grows thick they are comparatively 

 safe and well sheltered, but in certain bare stretches of unbroken 

 waste land they have to seek shelter as best they may, crouch- 

 ing beside some white wind-bleached stalk or in the shadow of 

 a telegraph pole. The northern species turns white in winter 

 and so escapes observation on the snow. 



The young, from one to six in number, are brought forth in 

 the form, which is simply a little space among the weeds and 

 bushes where the grass, when there is any, has been trampled 

 flat and perhaps slightly carpeted with loose fur. 



The time of birth varies from late winter to early summer 



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