110 



NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA 



[No. 55 



Food habits. Their food consists mainly of green grass, clovers, 

 and a great variety of tender plants, also of some buds and twigs 

 and barks of bushes. Usually they find abundance of green food at 

 all seasons so that comparatively little browse is eaten. 



Economic statuts. Generally these little rabbits are plump, sound, 

 and healthy, and as good as any of the group for food. Their value 

 as game and food is not generally appreciated because of the abun- 

 dance of larger game over most of their range, but as the valleys 

 become more populous they will remain after other game animals 

 are forced out. 



The slight damage to crops or bushes that they may occasionally do 

 is insignificant and in most cases easily preventable. 



BRACHYLAGUS IDAHOENSIS (MERBIAM) 

 PYGMY RABBIT; SAGE RABBIT; TSE-GU-OO of the Piute 



Lepus idahoensis Merriam, North Amer. Fauna, No. 5, pp. 75-78, 1891. 



Type. Collected in Pahsimeroi Valley, Idaho, by Vernon Bailey and B. H. 



Dutcher, September 16, 1890. 



General characters. A very small rabbit with short, wide skull, short ears, 



short legs, soft fur, large audital bullae, minute, all gray tail; and unique 



coloration (pi. 25). Winter 

 pelage in very long, silky fur ; 

 upper parts clear lavender, 

 fading to maltese blue, plain 

 drab, or light bluish gray; 

 nape, back of ears, throat, 

 feet, and legs cinnamon buff ; 

 belly and chin whitish. Sum- 

 mer coat, upper parts dull, 

 dark gray, with buffy or cin- 

 namon nape; feet and legs 

 cinnamon; throat and tail 

 buffy gray; belly and chin 

 whitish. Young, dull buffy 

 gray with clear buffy feet and 

 nape, and pale buffy lower 

 parts. 



Measurement s. Total 

 length, 300 mm ; tail, 18 ; hind 

 foot, 71; ear (dry), inside, 

 45; upper base to tip, 58. 

 Weight about 1 pound. Dice 



(1926, p. 28) gives 4 females as weighing 360, 384, 446, and 512 g, respectively. 



Grinnell, Dixon, and Linsdale give average of 12 females as 423 g and of 6 males 



as 405 g (1930, p.554). 7 



Distribution and habitat. The pygmy rabbit was first discovered 

 in 1890 near Big Lost River, Idaho, and since then has been traced 

 over a large part of the Great Basin, the sagebrush plains in Idaho, 

 Nevada, ^Oregon, and southern Washington, and into the edges of 

 California and Montana, in both Upper Sonoran and Transition 

 Zones (fig. IT) . In Oregon they extend from the southern foothills 



7 Grinnell, Dixon, and Linsdale have placed these pygmy rabbits under the genus 

 Sylvilagus on the ground of showing skeletal characters and certain habits suggesting 

 relationship with the brush rabbits of the west-coast region. On the other hand they 

 almost might be placed in the genus Ochotona, in another family, on the characters of 

 short legs, short ears, much reduced tails, and vocal accomplishments. It seems better, 

 however, not to upset the present familiar use of these names until much more thorough 

 studies of all related groups are made and a permanent system of character values 

 established. 



FIGURE 17. Range of the pygmy rabbit, Brachy- 

 lagus idahoensis, in eastern Oregon. 



