72 



THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 



work of but an instant to I'cafli the iloor and 

 by a bribe change the intention of the man 

 with the club. So the rabbit was caught 

 unhurt (not without the expense of nu- 

 merous long scratches on the hands and arms 

 of the captor), and was soon in a rabbit 

 house improvised from a packing box. She 

 did not give up her freedom without further 

 struggle, but between the perio<ls of bewil- 

 dering activity and thunder of hind feet on 

 the wood of the box, she looked out from her 

 temporary prison with large, gentle eyes. 



The next morning (February 26), on en- 

 tering the laboratory, I chanced to observe a 

 small brown oval patch in a corner of the 

 room. Bending down over it, I saw two 

 large, luminous eyes gazing mildly at me. 

 It was a baby jack rabbit, so small that it 

 could be held, T found, and partly covered in 

 one hand. Diligent search of the room dis- 

 closed one other baby in the farthest corner 

 under the radiator — a family of two. Both 

 together could be held securely on one palm 

 and they showed little fear and no desire to 

 leave the spot. 



The California jack rabbit (Lepits calif or- 

 niciis Gray) is born in an unusually ad- 

 vanced condition. The young rabbit is cov- 

 ered with fur, his white teeth are cut, and his 

 eyes are wide open. His coat is brown with 

 accents of yellow and black, much richer in 

 coloring than the grayish fur of his mother ; 

 and he is labeled a very young baby jack 

 rabbit by a light gray area which surrounds 

 his mouth and his brown wiggling nose — like 

 a round bib tucked above his chin instead of 

 below. 



On comparison he scarcely seems the son 

 of his mother. His ears are not half the 

 length of his head, whereas hers exceed the 

 head in length by two inches. Also his 

 muzzle is short and broad instead of long 

 and pointed like hers — in fact, his face is 

 ludicrously flat below the eyes as though he 

 were really as soft and plastic as he looks 

 and had received a gentle but convincing 

 blow on the nose. And thirdly, his short, 

 stocky legs would certainly classify him as the 

 offspring of some other rabbit than a jack. 



But these are all items of his inunaturity. 

 By the tenth day the ears and legs begin to 

 lengthen out of proportion to the increase in 

 growth elsewhere, and his muzzle also begins 

 to lengthen and narrow. The changes in the 

 shape of the muzzle and in the length of the 

 legs are gradual, but the growth of the ears 



from tliis time on is astonishingly rapid. At 

 the fifteenth day they equal the head in 

 length ; soon they outstrip it, until at the close 

 of the fourth week they are four inches long 

 and at the end of the fifth week measure four 

 and a half inches, whereas the head is then 

 only two and three fourths inches in length. 

 It is amusing to see Baby Jack take advantage 

 of this increased length of his ears to haul 

 them down and wash them conveniently in 

 his mouth — he has the instinct to wash his 

 face from the first morning of his life. 



During the first days jack rabbits have a 

 generalized sense of fear, squatting with 

 lowered ears at any sound or movement ; also 

 they have a bravado not possessed later, 

 turning and jumping at the enemy in pugi- 

 listic fashion while expostulating in a harsh, 

 low-pitched voice. Later their fear becomes 

 very definite and vivid, yielding not a jot to 

 months of care and captivity. 



One of the most conspicuous signs of a 

 jack rabbit's babyhood lies in his inability 

 to gauge perpendicidar distances. For the 

 first few days his instinct keeps him pretty 

 closely to the ground nest, otherwise he 

 would try to walk down hill as though it 

 were level or would unwittingly walk off 

 any rock or hillock and so might get many a 

 tumble. It is not until the third day that 

 he begins to be cognizant of the ups and 

 downs of his world. His development is 

 rapid, however, and twenty-four hours later 

 he stops and studies every situation. 



On the fourth day he begins digging, and 

 from this time until he is five weeks old spends 

 much time in this employment. Serious-eyed 

 and absorbed he works very hard — like all 

 young mammals he is "dead in earnest." 



.Jack rabbits have the play instinct from 

 the first day. In this case observed, play 

 activity increased steadily from the fourth 

 day to a maximum at the close of two weeks, 

 then continued, apparently without change, 

 except as influenced by increasing muscular 

 strength. Playing rabbits are intensely 

 alert. When facing away from each other, 

 suddenly, with what seems simultaneous 

 leaps a foot or more in air, they are turned 

 about touching noses. They bound away in 

 devious curving and zigzag courses, moving 

 with indescribable lightness and stopping 

 with startling abruptness. One jumps at the 

 other "pell-mell," he in turn shoots straight 

 up into the air, dropping to a listening 

 position with long ears held far forward, very 



