The Jack Rabbit in California 



By M A K Y CYNTHIA D I I' K E K S O X 



Illustrations from photographs by the Aiitlior 



This brief study of the developing jack rabbit was written in California, at Stanford University, 

 from notes accumulated during the daily care and observation of a pair of young rabbits, from the time 

 of their birth, February 26, until they were three months old. During the first six weeks of this period 

 they took kindly to a diet of cow's milk administered through a small opening in a pipette rubber attached 

 to a small vial, as I had found by previous experience other young mammals will do — skunks, wood- 

 chucks, cottontail rabbits. As far as known, nothing has been published heretofore on this development 

 of the jack rabbit. The interest lies especially in observations made on their developing instincts — namely, 

 that certain actions, such as washing the face, are not learned by imitation of the parent or through ex- 

 perience, but are instinctive from the moment of birth ; that a generalized fear instinct arises soon after 

 birth and becomes specific through experience, a valuable safeguard for the race in its definite environ- 

 ment; and that the play instinct develops those activities — digging, listening, leaping, running, nest 

 building — which are to prove necessary for the life of the adult. — The Author. 



THE snow was still on the mountains 

 of the Coast Range but the foothills 

 were green, buttercups and mustard 

 were beginning to make the fields yellow, 

 and an occasional poppy of the hosts to 

 appear later was showing along the road- 

 side or in the oat field— in other words, it 

 was February in the Santa Clara Valley. 



I had been tramping the foothills, where 

 the most conspicuous evidence of life is fur- 

 nished by the jack rabbit. Now and again 

 the gray forms had started up from the 



shelter of rocks or small bushes, or some- 

 times had appeared suddenly as if material- 

 ized from empty air, to speed away with 

 incredible swiftness. 



Now I was at my desk in the University 

 laboratory, my back to the window with its 

 view of mountains and foothills. Suddenly 

 there was shouting, and a rush of feet on the 

 campus outside. Three laborers were chas- 

 ing and stoning a jack rabbit. Soon they 

 had it cornered in an angle of the buildings 

 and were about to use a club. It was the 



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