426 SPORTING ADVENTURES IN THE FAR WEST. 



CHAPTER XVI. 



HAKES. 



Hares. Their Abundance. The "Jack Rabbit. "Mark Twain's Opin- 

 ion of its Speed. Marvellous Tales of Pioneers. What constitutes an 

 Oregon Mule. Coursing - clubs. California Greyhounds. Character- 

 istics of the Water-hare. Swims like a Retriever. How it escapes its 

 Pursuers. The Swamp-hare. Its Peculiar Appearance. Measure- 

 ments. The Washington, Prairie, California, Wood, and Sage Hares, 

 and the Smaller Varieties. Peculiar Character of Baird's Rabbit. The 

 Males suckle the Young. Dissection by a Surgeon. How Indians and 

 Whites capture Hares. 



HAKES are so abundant in the Far West and South-west 

 that they are considered nuisances in many sections of the 

 country. Their numbers are actually incalculable in sev- 

 eral places, and any ordinary shot can easily kill from 

 twenty to fifty in a day without much trouble, and in many 

 cases he may bag one hundred without travelling more 

 than two or three miles. ~No person who has not been in 

 the country can possibly comprehend how profuse they 

 are, or how little fear they have of man. I have hunted 

 them with a shot-gun ; but I found that after awhile to be 

 mere butchery, and was compelled, for the sake of sport, 

 to use a rifle, and to try and shoot every one in the head, 

 or not consider it a fair kill. When the creatures stand 

 within twenty feet or less of you, and look at you as 

 though you were no more dangerous than a shrub, it is 

 proof positive that man is a stranger to them; yet this I 

 have seen frequently. 



The great hare, and the species most characteristic of 

 the Far West, is the Lepus callotis, known as the mule 

 and the jackass rabbit; yet it is no more a rabbit than 

 any of the European hares, for it does not burrow as the 

 L. cuniculus of Europe does, nor is it so prolific, neither 



