Varying Hare 
the southward it merges gradually into the southern cotton- 
tail and westward into the following. 
4. Prairie Cottontail. Lepus floridanus mearnsi (Allen). Much 
lighter than any of the preceding, especially on the rump, 
ears light, without black edgings, and no spot between 
them. Size rather larger. 
Range. Upper Mississippi Valley south to Indiana and east 
to Central New York and Ontario. 
Varying Hare 
Lepus americanus virginianus (Harlan) 
Called also Snow-shoe Rabbit, White Hare. 
Length. 19 inches 
Description. Summer. Upper parts russet to dull ferruginous, 
lower parts white. Wuanter. Entirely white, though in southern 
part of its range some individuals remain partially brown through- 
out the winter. 
Range. Wooded regions of north-eastern North America south- 
ward along the Alleghanies to West Virginia, becoming scarce 
south of Maine. 
Our northern hare or white rabbit is a perfectly typical hare 
with the absurdly long hind legs characteristic of the tribe, dwelling 
by preference in old growth evergreen forests on gently sloping 
hillsides with here and there dense thickets of young spruce and 
pine springing up between the trunks of the older trees. 
Of all our wild animals they are beyond question the most 
helpless and incapable. It is evidently impossible for them to use 
their paws for grasping as most of the smaller quadrupeds 
habitually do, and I have never seen any evidence of their carry- 
ing things with their mouths. 
Winter and summer and in all kinds of weather they have 
no better shelter than the drooping boughs of an evergreen, 
beneath which each crouches alone for protection against the storm 
and concealment from its enemies, never more than half asleep 
apparently and always on the alert to dash away the instant it 
catches the scent of fox or ermine to the windward, or the crackle 
of a footstep in the distance. Whenever they feel hungry they 
78 



