CHAPTER XII. 



HAEES. 



ALTHOUGH it is common in America to hear different 

 species of hares designated hy the name of rabbit, this 

 is one of those extraordinary mistakes in nomen- 

 clature, 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 indi- 

 genous 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 favourite haunts being neglected, 

 overgrown old clearings or uncultivated land that the 

 heavy timber has been cut off. With beagles they 

 would afford admirable sport but for their habit of 

 seeking shelter when pursued in decayed logs or 

 hollow trees, their claws being so sharp that they can 

 ascend the cavity in the interior of a perpendicular 



