374 SPORTfXG ADVENTURES 



its haunts, and the way in which its feet are furred ; it also 

 turns white in winter. 



Audubon's hare (L. andi'.lionii}, which is confined to the 

 Pacific Coast, is smaller than the wood hare. It has long ears 

 and short leg's, and the tail is from two to three inches in 

 length. It is very common in California, but is not much 

 thought of as an animal for sport, owing to its size and lack 

 of fleetness. The fur is close, and marked with black and 

 grayish tips. 



The L. troicbridgii, another California species, has a small 

 head, and a tail that is almost rudimentary. The ears are as 

 long as the head; but the hind-legs are unusually short, so 

 that its gait resembles a series of jumps more than running. 

 In colour it is a dark-brown above, and a plumbeous gray 

 beneath ; it may be readily distinguished from Audubon's hare 

 by having no black edging on the tip of the ear, in being less 

 of a pure white beneath, and in having a shorter tail and hind 

 feet. It attains a length of from twelve to fifteen inches, and 

 a weight of one and a half pounds or more. 



One of the most curious species of the Lepori/la- found in the 

 Far West is the little rabbit or hare known as L. la/rdti, which 

 is a llocky Mountain variety of the L. amcricanns. This seems 

 to be the result of a new departure in Nature, or at least a 

 desire to prove that her general laws are mutable. The iirst 

 specimen of this extraordinary creature was caught by Dr. 

 Ilayden in the Wind River Mountains in June, 1*00, but it 

 has since been found from Wyoming to nearly the head-waters 

 of the Yellowstone River. Five specimens were captured in 

 1872 by the surveying party under the Professor's charge, and 

 it is from these that the remarkable traits of the creature have 

 been discovered. These are, primarily, that all the males 

 have teats and help to suckle the young. This has been 

 assumed from the fact that four out of the five specimens cap- 

 tured were adult males; that all had large teats full of milk; 

 and that the hair around the nipples was wet, and stuck to it, 

 showing conclusively that they were nursing the leverets. As 

 the party found no females, they thought their captures might 

 be a hermaphrodite form ; and to jud^v lor themselves the truth 



