BRUSH BABBIT 



229 



under side of body grayish white; under side of tail white. Worlings: Paths or run- 

 ways 214 to 3 inches wide, on ground beneath chaparral. Droppings: Flattened spheres 

 about ^ inch in diameter, scattered on ground at feeding places and along runways. 

 Occurrence. — Common resident in foothill region (Upper Sonoran Zone) on west 

 slope of Sierra Nevada. Eecorded from Lagrange and Pleasant Valley eastward to 

 El Portal (to altitude of 4000 feet on south facing mountain side immediately north 

 of El Portal). Lives on ground beneath chaparral, seldom venturing into the open. 

 Seen actively abroad at dusk of evening and morning. 



Pig. 35. Heads of (a) Mariposa Brush Eabbit and (b) Sacramento Cottontail 

 Babbit; one-half natural size. See pp. 227, 228. 



Smallest in point of size among the rabbits of the Yosemite section is 

 the Mariposa Brush Rabbit of the western foothill country. Hunters refer 

 to this as the "blue rabbit" because of its distinctly bluish gray cast of 

 coloration in contrast with the brownish tones of the cottontail. The 

 average visitor will be likely to see more of the cottontail and jack rabbit 

 than of the brush rabbit, as the former species forage generally in rather 

 open situations, while the latter habitually keeps close beneath the chap- 

 arral, even when foraging, and, moreover, is to be seen as a rule only in 

 the early morning and in late evening. 



In general form and appearance the brush rabbit resembles the cotton- 

 tail, to which it is not distantly related. The two species are 'rabbits' in 

 the restricted sense of the word, in that their young are hairless at birth 

 and are born in sheltered nests of some sort, and in that the adults browse 

 close to cover and when frightened seek safety beneath shrubbery or in 

 holes rather than in flight as do the hares (jack rabbits). 



The brush rabbit is about half the weight of a cottontail and measures, 

 on the average, smaller in all dimensions than that species. The ear of 

 the brush rabbit is shorter than the head; its greatest length, as measured 



