183 



CHAPTER XII. 



HARES. 



ALTHOUGH it is common in America to hear different 

 species of hares designated by the name of rabbit, this 

 is one of those extraordinary mistakes in nomenclature, in 

 reference to the fauna of the American continent, of which 

 I have previously spoken ; for no true rabbit is to be found 

 there, except in a state of domestication. In other words, 

 they are not indigenous to the land. The little wood hare, 

 so very abundant on the verge of cultivation that adjoins 

 prairie land, might well have been confused with the other 

 rodent, but when we find the Townsend hare and jackass 

 hare, both remarkable for their size and strongly-marked 

 characteristics of race, also called rabbits, such obviously 

 erroneous misnomers appear intentional, and therefore 

 culpable. 



The little wood hare is to be found in large numbers in 

 all those States whose rivers are tributaries of the 

 Mississippi, their favourate haunts being neglected over- 

 grown old clearings or uncultivated land that the heavy 



