162 



THE DESERT 



Senses of 

 the rabbit. 



Speed of the 

 jack-rabbit. 



contrives to save it. Lying in his form at the 

 root of some bush or cactus he is not easily seen 

 He crouches low and the gray of his fur fits 

 into the sand imperceptibly. You do not see 

 him but he sees you. His eyes never close ; 

 they are always watching. Look at them close- 

 ly as he lies dead before you and how large and 

 protruding they are ! In the life they see every- 

 thing that moves. And if his eyes fail him, 

 perhaps his ears will not. He was named the 

 jackass-rabbit because of his long ears ; and the 

 length of them is in exact proportion to their 

 acuteness of hearing. No footstep escapes them. 

 They are natural megaphones for the reception 

 of sound. It can hardly be doubted that his nose 

 is just as acute as his eyes and his ears. So 

 that all told he is not an animal easily caught 

 napping. 



And if the jack-rabbit's senses fail him, has 

 he no other resource ? Certainly, yes ; that is if 

 he is not captured. In proportion to his size 

 he has the strongest hind legs of anything on 

 the desert. In this respect he is almost like a 

 kangaroo. When he starts running and begins 

 with his long bound, there is nothing that can 

 overtake him except a trained greyhound. He 

 ricochets from knoll to knoll like a bounding 



