VARYING HARE 



distinguished from Cottontails by larger size, longer hind legs, 

 larger hind feet, no white underside to tail (in brown summer 

 pelage), and white winter pelage; in the summer pelage the 

 Varying Hares are generally a duller brown than any of the 

 Cottontails. 



The Varying Hares are so named from the fact that the 

 pelage varies with the season, brownish in summer, white in 

 winter. Although the transition seems to be rapid, and it 

 was formerly supposed to be a change of color in the hair itself, 

 the new pelage is the result of molt or shedding followed by a 

 growth of new hair. In fall and spring, specimens may be 

 secured in which the pelage is particolored, brown and white. 



Next to the assumption of a snow pelage, the most note- 

 worthy feature of these Hares is the large hind feet which 

 earns them the name of Snowshoe Rabbits, in some localities. 

 The broad hind feet serve as snow-shoes and carry the Hare 

 over the surface of deep snows which would otherwise make 

 him an easy prey for the first Lynx he encountered. 



In the North, Varying Hares have years of great abundance 

 followed by a year or two of great scarcity and then several 

 seasons of gradual increase. At the peak of one of these 

 cycles the Hares are everywhere, but the animals are soon 

 attacked by disease which nearly exterminates the species. 

 The disease may be of bacterial origin or due to an infestation 

 of insect parasites. Both diagnoses have been given for dead 

 Hares secured at such a time, according to Seton. This 

 Hare is one of the principal food mammals for small carnivores 

 over much of its range, and accordingly as the Hares are 

 abundant or scarce much of the other animal life may vary. 



Varying Hares may be called up by squeaking on the back 

 of the hand. At least they will come to this call in the North, 

 according to Preble, and I have successfully called them in 

 the Rocky Mountain region. 



Varying Hares have usually three or four young in a litter, 

 but may have as many as eight or ten during the cycle of 

 increase. There is evidence to show that these Hares have 

 more than one litter a year. 



Lepus townsendii Group. — White-tailed Jack Rabbits 



This section of the subgenus Lepus are all large forms, 

 heavy-bodied, with long ears and hind legs. Where the range 



483 



