BLACK-TAILED JACK RABBIT 



a heavy black wash; sides with less black than back and 

 toning gradually into a clearer buff y on lower flanks ; outside 

 of hind legs darker than sides; shoulders and forelegs 

 brighter, sometimes cinnamon-rufous; tops of forelegs and 

 hind legs whitish; eye-ring warm buffy; nape dark cinna- 

 mon; ears grizzled cinnamon and dark brown on anterior 



Fig. 103. Black-tailed Jack Rabbit 



half, whitish on posterior half, tip heavily marked with 

 black for an extent of from one to two inches; top of tail 

 black, an extension of the dark median area down rump, 

 underside of tail dark buffy ; color of underparts ochraceous 

 buffy, paler on middle of abdomen; throat a darker buff 

 than rest of underparts. Found in "Humid coast belt of 

 California from Gaviota Pass north to Cape Mendocino, 

 spreading inland over extreme northern end of San Joaquin 

 Valley, all of Sacramento Valley, up through the adjacent 

 foothills of the Sierra, and north through Shasta Valley to 

 Rogue River and Willamette Valley in Oregon. Vertical 

 range from sea level at San Francisco up to about 3,000 

 feet altitude on west slope of the Sierra ; zonal range mainly 

 Upper Sonoran and lower border of the Transition Zone." 

 (Nelson) 

 Washington Jack Rabbit. — Lepus californicus wallawalla 

 (Merriam). Plate XXXIX. 

 Paler and smaller than typical californicus, iron-gray above, 

 washed with pinkish buffy. Total length, 23 inches; tail 



489 



