CHAPTER XIII. 



HARES. 



ALTHOUGH it is common in America to hear different 

 species of hares designated by the name of rabbit, this is 

 one of those extraordinary mistakes in nomenclature, in 

 reference to the fauna of the American continent, of which 

 I have previously spoken ; for no true rabbit is to be found 

 there, except in a state of domestication. In other words, 

 they are not indigenous to the land. The little wood hare, 

 so very abundant on the verge of cultivation that adjoins 

 prairie land, might well have been confused with the other 

 rodent, but when we find the Townsend hare and jackass 

 hare, both remarkable for their size and strongly-marked 

 characteristics of race, also called rabbits, such obviously 

 erroneous misnomers appear intentional, and therefore cul- 

 pable. 



The little wood hare is to be found in large numbers in 

 all those States whose rivers are tributaries of the Missis- 

 sippi, their favorite haunts being neglected overgrown old 

 clearings or uncultivated land that the heavy timber has 

 been cut off. With beagles they would afford admirable 

 sport, but for their habit of seeking shelter when pursued 

 in decayed logs or hollow trees, their claws being so sharp 

 that they can ascend the cavity in the interior of a perpen- 

 dicular girdling from ten to twenty feet, and it is no unu- 

 sual occurrence to find a dozen, or even more, of these pret- 

 ty little creatures in the same retreat. This species is al- 

 most unknown in Canada. 



The sportsman, wishing to make a bag of them, should 



