PRAIRIE HARE. 15 



the plains. Captaiu Lewis iiKjasured tlie leaps of tliis animal, and found them 

 commonly from 18 to 21 ft^et. They are generally found separate, and are never 

 seen to associate in j^i-oater numbers tli;in two or three' 



The White-tailed Jack Rabbit lias an extended range in the northern 

 part of the Great Basin and on the Great rhiins. It is said to be found 

 as far north as latitu(hi 5.5° in Saskateliewan and ranges eastward to 

 Lake Winnii)eg, Elk liiver, Minnesota, and central Iowa. On the 

 south it is not found on the i)lains niucli below central Kansas and 

 southern Colorado — I'ort IvMley and Pendennis, Kans., and Las Animas, 

 ('olo., being near its southern limits. On the Ilocky Mountain plateau, 

 however, it goes a- little farther south and has been taken at Fort Gar- 

 land, Colo., and at Kanab, Utah. The Sierra Nevada and Cascade 

 Eange mark the limits of its western distribution, but it occurs in the 

 Sierra as far south as Hope Valley (hit. 38° 30'), and probably as far as 

 latitude 30°. 



Although called 'Prairie Hare,' it ranges high up in the mountains — 

 at least in summer — liigher than any other jack rabbit. In August, 

 1891, I saw a large rabbit, probably belonging to this species, at an 

 altitude of about 10,000 feet in the Sierra Nevada, about 20 miles south 

 of jNIount Whitney. Signs of their presence have been found in the 

 Eocky Mountains far above timber line and nearly to tlie summits of the 

 higher peaks. It is hardly probable that jack rabbits spend the winter 

 at su(;h altitudes, but the upper limit of their winter range still remains 

 to be ascertained. Abundant food in the mountain meadows and above 

 timber line probably tempts them to ascend from lower levels in summer 

 just as cultivated tields on the plains attract them from a distance. 



In the mountains and in the northern part of their range they become 

 pure white in winter, but in Kansas, Nebraska, Washington, and else- 

 where near the southern limit of their habitat they undergo only a 

 partial change, or do not turn white at all. In southern Oregon the 

 rabbits inhabiting the higher mountains are said to turn white in win- 

 ter, while a little lower down they undergo only a uartial change and 

 in the valleys do not assume the white pelage. 



This species probably never occurs in such numbers as the lilack- 

 tailed Jack Rabbit, even under the most favorable circumstances. Dr. 

 Cones speaks of it on the Great Plains as follows: 



Nor is the Prairie Hare in the least gregarious. I have never seen nor heard 

 of several together, and indeed it is rare to lind even two together, at any season 

 whatever. It is one of th.e most solitary animals with which I have become 

 acquainted. * ^- * i bave never found any kind of locality even, which, pre- 

 senting special attractions, might invito many hares together. All places are alike 

 to them; the oldest frontiersman, iirobably, could never guess with any degree of 

 certainty where the next hare to bound oft" before him would a^ipear. If it have auy 

 l)reference, however, it is for 'weedy' tracts, of which the sage-brush regions furnish 

 the best examples; there it finds shelter which the low, crisp, grass of rolling prairie 

 does not aff'ord, and also doubtless secures a greater variety of food.- 



' Cones' Edition Hist. Exped. Lewis and Clark, Vol. Ill, 1893, pp 865-866. 

 * Bull, Essex Institute, VH (1875), 1876, pp, 80-81. 



