Family LEPORIDAE 



193 



WHITE -TAILED JACKRABBIT 



Fig. 105. — Known distribution, in the United States, of two lago- 

 morphs with a restricted range in Illinois. 



a little ahead of the small prints of the front feet, one of which 

 trails the other when the animal hops, fig. 16c. 



Droppings of the jackrabbit average larger than those of the 

 cottontail but are otherwise like them. 



Jackrabbit forms, or resting places, are about 15 inches long 

 and half as wide ; cottontail forms are about 10 inches long. A 

 form found in a plowed field, fig. 10, almost certainly belongs 

 to a jack rather than a cottontail or a swamp rabbit. 



Distribution. — The white-tailed jackrabbit occurs in Illinois 

 only in the extreme northwestern counties. It is common in the 

 sand prairie at the Savanna Ordnance Depot in Jo Daviess 

 County. The subspecies in Illinois is Lepus townsendii cam- 

 panius Hollister. The range of the species extends from north- 

 western Illinois north and west to central Saskatchewan and 

 central Oregon and south to east-central California and north- 

 ern New Mexico, fig. 105. 



SYLVILAGUS FLORIDANUS (Allen) 



Eastern Cottontail 



Description. — The eastern cottontail, frontispiece and fig. 

 106, is the common rabbit of Illinois. The upper parts of the 



