SMALLER MAMMALS OF NORTH AMERICA 



493 



West. They are mainly nocturnal, and in areas 

 where there is an abundance of natural cover 

 in the way of brushy thickets and dense grass 

 commonly make concealed "forms" in which 

 they lie safely hidden. 



In areas where shelter is represented by scat- 

 tered bushes and a comparatively thin growth 

 of other vegetation they generally occupy bur- 

 rows in the ground. These may be holes de- 

 serted by badgers or prairie-dogs or dug by 

 themselves under a rock or other object. Hol- 

 low logs or natural cavities and crevices among 

 the rocks are also frequented. When pursued 

 by dogs, hares as a rule rely solely on their 

 speed for safety, while the cottontails take ref- 

 uge in the first hole they can reach. 



Everywhere in their territory, as the shades 

 of night approach, the cottontails come forth 

 from their hiding places and skip merrily about 

 in open ground on the borders of thickets and 

 similar shelter, where they search for the ten- 

 der green vegetation on which they love to 

 feed. After it becomes too dark to distinguish 

 their forms, the white tail may be seen twink- 

 ling about in the dusk. During the night they 

 are often revealed in country roads by the head 

 lights of automobiles. 



Several litters of from two to six young 

 usually appear during the spring and summer. 

 These are born blind and practically naked, 

 their unclad helplessness strongly contrasting 

 with the open-eyed, fully furred, and alert 

 young of the hares at the same age. This is a 

 conclusive indication of the close relationship 

 between cottontails and European rabbits, the 

 young of the latter being similarly, but even 

 more, undeveloped at birth. 



The young of the cottontails are born in 

 nests made of dead grasses warmly lined with 

 fur from the mother's body. If above ground 

 the nest is placed in a little depression and so 

 artfully concealed by a covering of dead 

 grasses that it can be discovered only by acci- 

 dent. When caught, young cottontails utter 

 little cries of alarm ; the wounded adults some- 

 times shriek in terror. 



From the early settlement of the United 

 States to the present day cottontails have been 

 so abundant that they have served as a valuable 

 source of our game food supply. They are 

 hunted with guns and with dogs, as well as 

 being snared and trapped. Enormous num- 

 bers, running into the millions, are killed in 

 this country yearly, but they are so prolific that 

 they hold their own in a surprising degree. 



Their abundance in many places, however, 

 has made them a serious pest to agriculture. 

 They eat growing alfalfa and other forage 

 plants, many kinds of cultivated vegetables, 

 young grape vines, and nursery stock and even 

 kill orchard trees by gnawing the bark from 

 the base of the trunks. As a result those who 

 suffer from their depredations consider them 

 pests to be destroyed, while others look upon 

 them as desirable game animals to be protected 

 by law. 



As game animals the cottontails furnish 

 some of the most delightful and interesting 

 sport available to American hunters. The 



scurrymg zigzag rush of a cottontail for the 

 nearest shelter is so full of energetic motion 

 that it always excites a pleasurable thrill in the 

 observer, and even the keenest sportsman has 

 so friendly a feeling for these Httle animals 

 that the escape of one of them from an unsuc- 

 cessful shot nearly always leaves a feeling of 

 humorous amusement. t 



The cottontails have a secure place in Amer- 

 ican literature and folklore. Who has not read 

 the \vonder stories of the adventures of "Brer 

 Rabbit" and ever after had a warmer feeling 

 of fellowship for his kind? The presence of 

 cottontails is a source of pleasure to children 

 of all ages, and their disappearance from the 

 wild life of a locality creates a more deeply 

 felt blank than would the passing of many a 

 nobler animal. 



THE MARSH RABBIT (Sylvilagus palus- 

 tris and its relatives) 



{For illustration, sec page ^ii) 



The marsh rabbit, or "pontoon," as it is 

 known in Georgia, is a distinctively American 

 species alhed to the cottontails, but distin- 

 guished from them by its more heavily propor- 

 tioned body, smaller ears, shorter and slenderer 

 legs and feet, and shorter, nearly unicolored 

 tail. Its only close relative in the United 

 States is the swamp rabbit, known in Alabama 

 as the "cane-cutter." 



These two species appear to be members of a 

 Tropical American group of which other mem- 

 bers are the wood rabbits of Mexico, Central 

 and South America. The distribution of the 

 group was probably at one time continuous, but 

 a change to arid conditions in northeastern 

 Mexico and Texas isolated the two species re- 

 maining in this country. 



The distribution of the marsh rabbit is lim- 

 ited to the soutlieastern coastal States from 

 Dismal Swamp, Virginia, to Mobile Bay, Ala- 

 bama. It is common in suitable places in Flor- 

 ida. Its larger relative, the swamp rabbit, 

 ranges west from this area to Texas and up 

 the Mississippi Valley to Illinois and. southeast- 

 ern Kansas. Swamp rabbits are numerous in 

 the low, wooded coastal region of Louisiana. 

 They are larger and longer-legged than marsh 

 rabbits and fleeter of foot. 



Among all the rabbits of the world the marsh 

 and swamp rabbits are the only species which 

 have aquatic habits. Both live mainly in 

 marshes, wooded swamps, and along the low 

 wooded courses of streams. Other rabbits and 

 liares are occasionally known to cross water 

 by swimming, but the marsh and swamp rab- 

 bits live about the water and take to it with 

 all the freedom of a muskrat or mink. The 

 marsh rabbit appears to be the more aquatic of 

 the two, as the swamp rabbit sometimes lives 

 in the forest, farther back from the water. 



The Tropical wood rabbits are habitants of 

 the dense forests, where they are well hidden 

 under the rank undergrowth. They are not 

 known to enter the water, but, like their north- 

 ern relatives, make runways through the dense 



