144 FOUR-FOOTED AMERICANS 



can possibly travel, tliat the journey seems about four 

 times as long as it really is I " 



" If Ave hear about Rabbits now, won't Dodo be dis- 

 appointed? " asked kind-hearted Rap. 



" I have pictures of them in my portfolio, and you 

 boys must remember and tell her all abont them. 



'' Of these four Rabbits the Wood Hare, the smallest 

 and prettiest, is something less than a foot and a half 

 long from the tip of his nose to the root of his cunning 

 little turned-up white tail." • 



" Is that the way you measure fourfoots, to the he- 

 gimiing of iheir tails?" asked Rap. "We measure 

 birds to the end of the tail." 



" Yes, but a bird's tail where it joins the body is so 

 overlaid with feathers that it is difiicult to tell where it 

 begins and the body ends ; with fourfoots it is differ- 

 ent. If I should tell you, for instance, that a Red Fox 

 was four feet long, you would tliiidc liiui nuicli longer 

 than he is, and not understand liis size as Avell as if I 

 said his body was two and a half and his tail one and a 

 half feet long." 



" Yes, I see ; if the tail was measured in, he would 

 seem a giant." 



" The Wood Hare has large eyes, long ears, the long 

 hind legs of the family, also fur snow-shoes on the soles 

 of his feet." 



" What good are such long back legs ? " asked Nat. 



" To jump with; ever}' animal famil}- has some par- 

 ticular way of moving, — locomotion it is called, — and 

 Hares are leapers, which is told in the Latin name 

 lepiis the Wise Men give them." 



" Does this Hare ever changre color and moult ? " 



