LEPORIDZ., ROMEROLAGUS, 411 
becomes deciduous, but the inner small pair is retained through life. 
The food of these animals is strictly vegetable. Rabbits have been 
introduced into various parts of the world, and in some lands have 
multiplied to such an extent as to become very serious pests, and 
all kinds of methods for exterminating them have been tried in vain, 
illustrating in a very forcible and unpleasant manner the foolishness 
of man when he disturbs the harmony of Nature and interferes with 
her distribution of animal life upon the Globe. In sections of 
western North America Jack Rabbits, so-called, abound in such 
extraordinary numbers that great hunts are regularly organized and 
attended by all the ranchmen in the vicinity, and many thousands of 
these animals are killed in a single day, having been ‘‘rounded up”’ 
in a manner similar to that employed with the half-wild range cattle, 
except that the Hares are driven into a space inclosed with nets, 
from which there is no escape, and where they are speedily dispatched 
with clubs. In spite of these wholesale executions, and all other 
fatalities that overtake them, Hares still flourish. 
One other family is comprised in this suborder, the LAcomyIp#, 
containing the little Chief Hares, or Pikas. No species are found 
within the lands embraced in this work so far as known. Far up 
the mountain sides, sometimes at an elevation of many thousand 
feet, amid the ranges that form the ‘‘backbone’’ of the North 
American Continent, their fortress a hole amid the rocks, these little 
creatures, whose aspect is between that of a guinea-pig and a rabbit, 
live in colonies and betray their presence to the intruder on their 
domains by sharp, squeaking, querulous ventriloquial notes or cries, 
deceptive as to distance and locality. Very timid, the Pikas are shy 
and watchful, and survey an interloper from the farther side of some 
friendly stone. They lay up stores of provisions, such as grass and 
other herbage, against the long severe winter, and are very indus- 
trious. Four young are produced in thespring about May. Pikas 
are very small, tailless animals, about eight inches in length, with 
large, flat ears, small eyes, and a rudimentary thumb with claw. 
Fam. IX. Leporidze. Hares, Rabbits. 
C. J. Forsyth-Major, On Fossil and Recent Lagomorpha. Trans. 
Zool. Soc., 1898, p. 433. 
85. Romerolagus. 
Romerolagus Merr., Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash., x, 1896, p. 173. Type 
Romerolagus nelsoni Merriam. 
Small; ears, hind legs, and feet short. Skull similar to that of the 
subgenus Sylvilagus, but postorbital processes are lacking anteriorly, 
