130 THE AMERICAN HARE. 



CHAPTER VII. 



THE AMERICAN HARE LEPUS AMERICANUS. 



THE GEEAT PRAIEIE HABE OR JACKASS EABBIT — LEPrS TEXIANTS. 



Descnjytion.— Read short; nose blunt; eyes prominent ; ears 

 far back and very near each other ; whiskers long and thick ; 

 body long and clothed with long hair, beneath which is a soft 

 dowTiy fur ; the hind-legs are nearly twice the length of the 

 fore-legs ; the feet thickly clothed with hair, so that the im- 

 pression of the claws is not generally visible even when passing 

 over snowy ground ; the tail short and covered with fiu*. In 

 summer the fur on its body is an inch and a-half long ; in 

 winter, perhaps half an inch longer. 



Colour. — In summer the whole of the upper part of the 

 body is of a reddish-brown ; the hairs are at their roots of a 

 bluish ash-tmt; then comes a yellowish- red, and the jD^rt next 

 the tips reddish-browm ; nearly aU the hairs are tipped with 

 "black — this colour predominates towards the rump ; the 

 whiskers black; ears bro^ra with narrow black border to- 

 wards outer edge ; the pupil of the eye dark ; the iris light 

 yellow ; the nose, chin, and throat are white ; the under 

 surface of the body and inner surface of legs, white; tail 

 brown above, white beneath. In the Northern States it 

 becomes nearly purely white in winter. 



Size. — The American hare varies much in size. The 

 following dimensions are the average : Length from point of 

 nose to end of tail, twenty-one inches ; length of ear, three 



