1936] 



MAMMALS OF OREGON 



97 



July 26, 28, and 29. At the same time, on July 28, a half-grown 

 young was collected which would seem to indicate more than one 

 litter of young in a year (1986, p. 7) . 



LEPUS TOWNSENDII TOWNSENDII BACHMAN 



WESTERN WHITE-TAILED JACK RABBIT; POOLALIK of the Walla Walla and Nez 



Perce" (J. K. T.) 



Lepus townxendii Bachman, Jour. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila. 8 : 90, 1839. 



Type locality. Walla Walla, Wash. 



General characters. A rather heavy-bodied rabbit of about the same size 

 and weight as the black-tailed, Lepus c. wallawalla, but with less length of 

 body, legs, and ears; tail large and mostly white at all seasons; whole body 

 usually turning white in winter. In summer pelage, head, body, and legs clear 

 gray; edges and back of ear 

 tips and eyelids black; nar- 

 row line along top of tail 

 gray or dusky; feet and 

 throat buffy gray; most of 

 tail, belly, chin, eyering, and 

 back of ears white. Full 

 winter pelage generally all 

 pure white, except edges and 

 back of ear tips and eyelids 

 black, and sometimes gray 

 or buffy markings on ears, 

 face, and feet. In the low, 

 warm valleys many do not 

 turn white in winter, but be- 

 come lighter, frosted gray. 

 Young more buffy gray than 

 adults. 



Measurements. Average of 

 typical adults: Total length, 

 575 mm; tail, 79; hind foot, 

 149; ear (dry), inside from 

 notch to tip, 100, upper base to tip, 120. Weight given by Dice of specimen 

 taken at Wallula, Wash., adult female, 3,070 g=6 pounds and 13 ounces; of 

 two other females from Kiona, Wash., 2,020 and 2,690 g ; and of a male, 2,090 g 

 (1926, p. 7). 



Distribution amd habitat. In varying numbers these rabbits cover 

 practically all of the open country of Oregon east of the Cascade 

 Mountains and range north into British Columbia, south into Ne- 

 vada and California and east to western Wyoming and Colorado 

 (fig. 14). From the plains of the Columbia at 100 feet above sea 

 level in Upper Sonoran Zone they range up over the high valleys 

 and plateau tops in grassy and sagebrush country, and in the moun- 

 tains often find their way to the open slopes above timber line, well 

 into Hudsonian if not Arctic- Alpine Zones. Their main range and 

 abundance, however, are in Transition Zone. Their boundaries ex- 

 cept on the south are largely formed by timbered areas, which they 

 do not enter. On the east they grade into the subspecies campanms 

 of the northern Great Plains region, but to the south are held back 

 by some of the potent, invisible forces controlling zonal distribution. 

 Their greatest abundance seems to be on the high plains of the 

 Columbia where at times they become almost as numerous as the 

 black-tailed " jacks " on the lower areas. In 1834 J. K. Townsend 

 (1839, p. 325) in his description of them at the type locality said 

 they never turn white in winter. They are used by the Indians and 



7209 36 7 



FIGURE 14. Range in Oregon of Townsend's hare, 

 or white-tailed jack rabbit, Lepus townsendii town- 

 sendii. Type locality circled. 



