178 PRAIRIE AND FOREST. 



fact, so great are their numbers in the prairie countries, 

 margining 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 wood- 

 lands. Its southern range commences about the 

 40th 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, render- 

 ing 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 confounded 

 with the blue hare of Scotland, but both are so essen- 

 tially 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 latitude, in Labrador 

 and Newfoundland, which I would not be surprised if 

 discovered 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 Rocky Mountains; of the second, 

 to the westward, and upon the plains, verging on the 

 Apache country, in Lower California. Where the 

 country is sufficiently clear for coursing, doubtlessly 

 good sport could be obtained -with greyhounds, as 



