368 SPORTING ADVENTURES 



CHAPTER XVI. 



HARES. 



Hares Their abundance The "jack rabbit" Mark Twain's opinion of 

 its speed Marvellous tales of pioneers What constitutes an Oregon 



mule Coursing clubs California greyhounds Characteristics of 



the water-hare Swims like a retriever How it escapes its pursuers 

 The swamp-hare Its peculiar appearance Measurements The Wash- 

 ington, prairie, California, wood, and sage-hares, and the smaller 

 varieties Peculiar character of Baird's rabbit The males suckle the 

 young Dissection by a surgeon How Indians and whites capture 

 hares. 



HARES are so abundant in the Far West and South-west that 

 they are considered nuisances in many sections of the country. 

 Their numbers are actually incalculable in several places, and 

 any ordinary shot can easily kill from twenty to fifty in a day 

 without much trouble, and in many cases he may bag 1 one 

 hundred without travelling" more than two or three miles. No 

 person who has not been in the country can possibly compre- 

 hend how profuse they are, nor how little fear they have of 

 man. I have hunted them with a shot-gun, but I found that 

 after a while to be mere butchery, and was compelled, for the 

 sake of sport, to use a rifle, and to try and shoot every one in 

 the head, or not consider it a fair kill. When the creatures 

 stand within twenty feet or less of you, and look at you as 

 thoug-h you were no more dangerous than a shrub, it is proof 

 positive that man is a strang-er to them ; yet this I have seen 

 frequently. 



The great hare, and the species most characteristic of the 

 Far West, is the Lcpus callotis, known as the mule and the 

 jackass rabbit ; yet it is no more a rabbit than any of the 

 European hares, for it does not burrow as the L. ciniiculus of 

 Europe does, nor is it so prolific, neither is it cannibalistic in 



