190 PRAIRIE AND FORE8T. 



fifth, cedar and hemlock swamps being its favorite retreats. 

 In summer this animal is a beautiful bright chestnut, while 

 ,in winter it becomes almost entirely white, rendering it no 

 easy object to see when the landscape possesses its snowy 

 covering. With hounds it affords good sport, for it is 

 fleet and enduring, and invariably prefers being run into, 

 to taking shelter in tree-stump or rocky fissure. This spe- 

 cies has frequently been confounded with the blue hare of 

 Scotland, but both are so essentially dissimilar in their hab- 

 its of life and in choice of haunts, that there can be no rea- 

 son to doubt that they belong to separate species. How- 

 ever, there is another species of American hare found upon 

 the barren lands about the sixtieth degree of north latitude, 

 in Labrador and Newfoundland, which I would not be sur- 

 prised if discovered to be identical with the white hare of 

 Northern Europe. 



The jackass hare and Townsend's hare are very similar 

 in appearance and habit, the former being larger than the 

 latter; the habitat of the first being to the east of the 

 Rocky Mountains; of the second, to the westward, and 

 upon the plains, verging on the Apache country, in Lower 

 California. Where the country is sufficiently clear for 

 coursing, doubtless good sport could be obtained with 

 greyhounds, as they are remarkably swift and enduring. 

 When among the chaparral or wild sage they have so little 

 dread of man's presence that they will almost permit them- 

 selves to be kicked out of their form ; from this circum- 

 stance, for shooting them, small shot, say No. 6, can be used 

 to the greatest advantage. 



The aquatic hare is alone found in America, the savannas 

 of Georgia and South Carolina being its favorite habitat ; 

 . Kentucky, Southern Indiana, Illinois, also Tennessee, pos- 

 sess them. However, they are nowhere sufficiently numer- 

 ous to make them a special object of pursuit. 



