1936] 



MAMMALS OF OREGON 99 



kinds are exhausted or are not available. Berry, and other fruit 

 bushes, and trees are generally favorites. Clover, alfalfa, grains, and 

 many garden vegetables are eagerly eaten when available. In some 

 cases standing crops and haystacks are seriously reduced. 



Economic status. In some cases these rabbits do considerable 

 mischief to grainfields, alfalfa, and clover meadows, and even gar- 

 dens, but their greatest damage is probably to the grazing and in 

 winter to stacks of hay, at which they often gather in large num- 

 bers. Locally they also destroy some young fruit trees by cutting 

 off the tops or eating the bark from the trunks as high as they can 

 reach. Over most of their range, however, they are not sufficiently 

 numerous to do noticeable damage and their value as food and game 

 is sufficient to overbalance their slight consumption of forage and 

 crops. They are rarely infested with parasites. Usually they are in 

 good condition and make excellent eating. They have a good market 

 value, and over part of their range might well be given sufficient 

 protection to prevent undue reduction of their numbers. 



LEPUS CALIFORNICUS CALJFORNICUS GRAY 

 CALIFORNIA JACK RABBIT 



Lepus calif arnica Gray, Zool. Soc. London, Proc. p. 88, 1836 (nomen midum). 

 Lepus calif oniicus Gray, Charlesworth's Mag. Nat. Hist. 1 : 586, 1837. 

 Lepus californiums vigilax Dice, Univ. Mich., Mus. Zool., Occasional Papers, 166, 

 p. 11, 1927. 



Type. Collected at St. Antoine, Calif, (near Jolon, Monterey County), by 

 David Douglas in 1831. 



General characters. Large, ears very long; dark, brownish gray, with upper 

 surface of tail and tips of ears black. Winter pelage, upper parts dark buffy 

 brown, darkened by long black outer hairs; top of tail and back of ears near 

 tips black ; lower parts and flanks dark buff or salmon. Summer pelage paler 

 and grayer than in winter. Young heavily furred at birth, dark, coarse gray, 

 becoming paler and less grizzled when half grown. 



Measurements. Average of typical specimens: Total length, 604 mm; tail, 

 95; hind foot, 131; ear (dry), from notch, 125, upper base to tip, 145. Weight, 

 variously given as 5 to 7 pounds. 



Distribution and habitat. These big rabbits extend from Cali- 

 fornia northward into the open country of the Kogue, Umpqua, and 

 Willamette Valleys, commonly reaching as far north as the country 

 about Salem, and more rarely to the Columbia River (fig. 15). 

 Nominally an Upper Sonoran Zone species, they often crowd a little 

 beyond the upper limits of this zone. Generally they occupy the 

 open spaces, natural prairies, clearings, old fields, and pastures, but 

 more than most other jack rabbits they enter the thickets and 

 patches of chaparral of the valley slopes. In most of their Oregon 

 range they are not numerous, although in favorable locations fairly 

 common. On November 26, 1930, nine of their crushed bodies were 

 counted on the road from Eugene to Salem, recent victims of traffic. 



General habits. During the day these big brown hares lie con- 

 cealed in a shallow form under some weed or tuft of dry grass where 

 their brown colors blend perfectly with the dry vegetation and dark 

 soil. Often depending on their protective coloration, they will lie 



