12 JACK RABBITS OF THE UNITED STATES. 



habits will reveal many points of interest and will aronse admiration 

 for the way in which they seem to overcome every adverse condition 

 of life, so admirably are they adapted to their surronndings. 



Unlike the cotton-tails, or the common rabbit of Europe, these 

 hares do not live in burrows, but make 'forms' under bushes or in 

 patches of weeds, where they find protection from the weather, and 

 also bring forth their young. Certain shrubs in the West belonging 

 to the genus BUjelovia are commonly known as 'rabbit brush,' because 

 they grow in dense thickets, in which rabbits are fond of hiding. 

 Where there are no bushes, the labbits seek the shade of any objects 

 which can shield them from the burning rays of the sun. A traveler on 

 the Southern Pacific llailroad, crossing the barren idains of the San 

 Joaquin Valley in California, where large stretches of country are 

 devoid of bushes, may sometimes see the jack rabbits crouching in the 

 shadows of the telegraph poles, evidently alarmed by the train, but' 

 uncertain whether or not to forsake their shady spots and seek safety 

 in flight. 



Extremes of climate ai>parently do not afi'ect them to any great 

 extent. Some species are at home on the deserts of Arizona and Cali- 

 fornia; others, as the Prairie Hare, contrive to exist in the intense cold 

 of a Montana winter, when the ground is covered with snow, and they 

 are compelled to live on the bark of shrubs or of willows growing along 

 the streams. 



Food. — Like other rabbits, they feed almost ( xclusively on the bark 

 and leaves of shrubs and on herbage, and hardly any land is too poor 

 to supply this food in some form. 



Ou the Great Plains, buffalo and granm grass and such herbs as 

 they can find constitute their i)rincipal fare, but this is supplemented 

 in winter by the bark of willows. In the deserts of the Great Basin 

 they seem to be especially fond of the tender annual species of grease- 

 wood {Alriplex) and several species of cactus. If nothing better is 

 obtainable, however, they can subsist on Sarcobatus, and shrubs which 

 other animals seldom touch. Sometimes it is difficult to see where they 

 can obtain sufficient food, but lack of water and of green herbage serve 

 only to reduce their numbers and rarely cause their complete absence 

 from any region. Among the greasewood on the alkali fiats northwest 

 of Great Salt Lake, or on the cactus covered deserts of Arizona, the 

 jack rabbits are almost as fat and sleek as when feeding in the 

 alfidfa patches and vineyards of soutliern Califorina. If necessary 

 they can travel long distances for food, but as they seldom drink, 

 s(;arcity of water causes them little incjonvenience, and the juicy cac- 

 tus 'pads' or ordinary deseit herbage furnish all the moisture neces- 

 sary to slake their thirst. They are fond of vegetables and alfalfa, and 

 when these can'be had they quickly abandon their usual food and establish 

 themselves near the garden or cultivated field. Tlieir Condnessior tender 

 bark makes them particularly destructive in the orchard and vineyard, 



