SWAMP, JACKASS, AND TOWNSEND HARES. 185 



covering of snow, with a bright warm sun overhead. In 

 the valley of the Wabash on such a day I have frequently 

 killed over fifty in an afternoon. In the State of Missouri,, 

 near Brookfield, I have been equally successful. In fact, 

 so great are their numbers in the prairie countries, margin- 

 ing timber land, that any ordinary shot can do the same in 

 almost any portion of their habitat. The changeable or 

 swamp hare is also abundant ; but does not frequent the 

 same localities as the last mentioned, being partial to thick, 

 low-lying woodlands. Its southern range commences 

 about the I Oth degree of latitude, terminating about the 

 55th, cedar and hemlock swamps being its favourite 

 retreats. In summer, this animal is a beautiful bright 

 chestnut, while in winter it becomes almost entirely white, 

 rendering it no easy object to see when the landscape 

 possesses its snowy covering. With hounds it affords 

 good sport, for it is fleet and enduring, and invariably 

 prefers being run into, to taking shelter in tree-stump or 

 rocky fissure. This species has frequently been con- 

 founded with the blue hare of Scotland, but both are so 

 essentially dissimilar in their habits of life and in choice 

 of haunts, that there can be no reason to doubt that they 

 belong to separate species. However, there is another 

 species of American hare found upon the barren lands 

 about the 60th degree of north laditude, in Labrador and 

 Newfoundland, which it would not surprise me to find 

 to be identical with the white hare of Northern Europe. 



The jackass hare and Townsend's hare are very similar 

 in appearance and habit, the former being larger than the 

 latter. The habitat of the first being to the east of the 



