410 LEPORIDZ. 
young are born underground, naked, blind, and helpless. These 
animals inhabit districts °varying greatly in their conditions and 
situations. Some seek swamps, marshes, or dense thickets, like the 
southern canebrakes, and are partly aquatic; others delight in woods, 
bushy coverts, and tangled depths; while still others are at home 
only in the snow-covered northern wastes, or the wide wind-swept 
prairies or desert expanse. In the northern portion of the western 
hemisphere the greater portion of these animals are found, and the 
largest species occur in the extreme north and on the plains, and are 
represented by the Arctic Hares and Jack Rabbits. Certain species 
turn white in winter in districts where there are heavy falls of snow, 
the white coat assimilating with the snow, and affording concealment 
to the animal. This change, however, does not always occur 
throughout the range of every species, as witnessed by the Washing- 
ton Hare, L. washingtont, which is a white animal in winter in its 
northern range, while in the more southern part of its dispersion, 
about Puget Sound, it does not turn white in winter, the moderate 
snow fall in that section not making a white coat necessary for 
protection. On the contrary, an animal of such a color would be, 
probably, all the more conspicuous. Hares are remarkable for their 
lengthened ears and hind legs, and in some species these characters 
are carried to an extreme, but all members of the family have the 
hind legs considerably elongated, and it is by them that the great 
leaps made in flight are accomplished. Hares and Rabbits are 
absolutely without defense, flight (aided by a low order of strategy, 
illustrated by doubling on its tracks) being their only means of 
escape from their enemies. They are, however, always on the watch, 
their large eyes roving constantly over every object in range of their 
vision, and the long ears constantly in motion, attentive to every 
sound. Innumerable enemies of the earth and air are continually 
seeking their destruction, and it is only its amazing fecundity that 
enables the race to survive. The fore legs are very short, and are 
never used as hands, as is the case with many rodents, and although 
in the feeble combats indulged in by Hares, the fore feet may occa- 
sionally be used to strike an adversary, they are capable of inflicting 
only very slight injuries. Compared with many rodents, the teeth 
of Hares are weak, but they commit much damage with such as 
they have, gnawing trees, shrubs, etc., and are very destructive to 
growing crops, vegetables, and also to ornamental plants. The 
members of this family possess more teeth than those of any other 
among the rodents, and they are remarkable for having at birth 
three pairs of incisors in the upper jaw, the second pair small and 
placed behind the middle large pair. The second outer pair early 
