BLACK-EARED JACK RABBIT. 21 



In the summer of 1801 I saw large numbers just south of the town of 

 Bakersfield. At least a hundred were in sight at once, and were so 

 tame that they paid little attention to teams j)assing along the road, 

 and would allow a person to approach within a few feet before moving. 

 Dr. A. K. Fisher and Mr. Vernon Bailej'^ also saw thousands of jack 

 rabbits between Bakersfield and Visalia only a few weeks later. At 

 one point just north of Delano, Tulare County, at least 100 scampered 

 away at a single discharge of a gun. 



Referring to the habits of the Black-tailed Jack Rabbit in Arizona, 

 Dr. Coues ' writes : 



At I'^ort Whijiple, the species is very coininon the year round, and almost every 

 sort of locality is frequented by them, though they chiolly atil'oct grassy meadows 

 and open ghules, Interspersed with copses, or clumps of oak trees, or patches of 

 briery undergrowth. The gulclics, or ' washes,' as they are called, leading out of 

 mountain ravines, and thickly set with grease-wood {Obio7ie lAtriplex] canescens), are 

 favorite resorts. They feed much upon this plant, and by their incessant coursings 

 through patches of it they wear little intersecting avenues, along which they ramble 

 at their leisure. When feeding at their case, and unsuspicious of danger, they move 

 witli a sort of lazy abandon, performing a succession of careless leaps, now nibbling 

 the shrubs overhead, now the grass at their feet. They are not at all (jreyarious, 

 though peculiar attractions may bring many together in the same spot. They do 

 not burrow, but construct a 'form' in which they squat. I do not think these are 

 permanent; but rather that they are extemporized, as wanted, in some convenient 

 bush; though the case may be different during the season of reproduction. It has 

 been stated by scmie authors, that only two or three are produced at a birth, which I 

 know to be at least not always the case, having foun<l as many as six embryos in the 

 multipartite womb of a pregnant female. In the latitude of Fort "Whipple the 

 young are brought forth in June. 



* * * It has a long, swinging gallop, "and performs prodigious leaps, some of 

 them over bushes 4 feet high; now in the air, its feet all drawn together and 

 downstretched; now on the ground, which it touches and rebounds from with 

 marvelous elasticity. It will course thus lor a hundred yards or so, and then stop 

 as suddenly as it started; and, sitting erect, its long, wide open ears, vibrating with 

 excitement, are turned in every direction to catch the sound of following danger. 



Black-eared Jack Rabbit or Eastern Jackass Hare 

 {Lepus melanotis Meariis.) 



The Black-eared Jack Rabbit is simply the eastern form of the Black- 

 tailed Rabbit of the Great Basin region, and was described only six 

 years ago, in 1890, by Dr. E. A. Mearns, from a market specimen sup- 

 posed to have been killed near Independence, Kans.'^ The differences 

 between it and the common Black-tailed Jack Rabbit are only apparent 

 after a careful conipaiison of a series of specimens, but Lepus melanotis 

 is described as having a richer coloring and shorter ears than its West- 



'Am. Nat., I, Dec, 1867, pp. 532-5.S3. 



•Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., N. Y., II, Feb., 18<t0, pp. 297-300. The average measure- 

 ments of two specimens from Independence, including the type, are: Total length, 

 23J inches (o'lO"""); tail, 3 inches (77"""); ear. 5i iuches (142""). The ear averages 

 nearly 30""" shorter than in /.. lex'mnus. 



