IN THE FAR WEST. 375 



of their suspicions, they got Dr. Curtis, one of the company, to 

 dissect a large one. He found it to be a perfect male in 

 every way; but, to be sure that it was not exceptional, he dis- 

 sected others, and this assured him that he was right. Hav- 

 ing seen no females, he could only say that he supposed both 

 sexes took part in suckling the young. The doctor certified 

 this report publicly in Washington, by stating that he had 

 carefully examined the specimens in the field, and found they 

 were males, yet gaveexternal signs of being suckled. To satisfy 

 himself, he carefully dissected one which was unmistakably 

 marked, and found conclusive evidence that it had been 

 suckled for some time previous to its death. The milk was 

 abundant in the teats, but, excepting this, it had uo other 

 characteristics of the female sex, all the male organs being 

 perfect. 



Those mentioned are, so far as I know, the various species 

 of true hares in the Far West and the South-west, if I exclude 

 the common hare (L. amcncanus), which is abundant in portions 

 of the country adjoining the Missouri River, and the Texan 

 variety of the jack-rabbit. All resemble their European con- 

 geners in habits, for they feed at night principally, have about 

 the same number of young at a litter, and, like them, do not 

 burrow. There is not, in fact, a specimen of the true rabbit in 

 the country, if I except the descendants of the European 

 species that may have become wild. 



The hares are so profuse that they are shipped by the tons 

 to the markets of the Atlantic States, and sold at prices so 

 cheap that they could not, apparently, pay for the ammunition 

 wasted on them. They are hunted in various ways in the 

 West. One method is to run them out of covert with slow- 

 hounds, and shoot them as they flee past a stand ; another is 

 to course them with greyhounds, but this affords little sport 

 except with the mule rabbit; and the next is to trap or snare 

 them. The latter is the favourite means of capturing them 

 with market hunters and Indians, for by it thousands are 

 caught in a day sometimes. 



The grand drives of the Piute Indians of Nevada have 

 often yielded them from three to ten thousand heads in a week, 



