96 



ORDERS OF MAMMALS— GNAWING ANIMALS 



common rabbit, and the jack have of the South- 

 west. Large male specimens measure IS inches 

 in length of head and body, tail, 2 inches, and 

 weigh 6 pounds. 



Like the true fur-bearing animals, Varying 

 Hares have two kinds of fur, — a dense, fine and 

 soft under fur through which grows a storm-coat 

 of thin, coarse, straight hair. It is the latter 

 which gives an animal its color. In the summer 

 these long hairs are black, but as winter ap- 

 proaches they turn white. 



The habits of the Varying Hares and Rabbits 

 are so nearly the same that it is unnecessary 

 to describe them separately. They all require 

 brushy ground, broken rocks, rugged ravines or 

 tree-holes in which to hide from the foxes, dogs, 

 men, mink, martens, lynxes, skunks and birds of 

 prey which constantly hunt them as food. But 

 for their keenness of sight, hearing and scent, 

 their swiftness in running to cover, and their 

 marvellous agility in doubling and turning when 

 pursued, their numerous enemies would soon 

 exterminate them. 



The Polar Hare 1 is the most northern spe- 

 cies of this Family. Colonel Brainard found its 

 tracks at 83° 24', which for fifteen years re- 

 mained man's "farthest North." In the southern 

 portion of its home, this hare is gray and white 

 in summer, but in the higher polar regions it is 

 white all the year round, like the majority of true 

 arctic animals, — the owl, fox, bear and wolf. 



The Prairie Hare- of the western plains is 

 generally supposed to be of the same species as 

 the so-called jack "rabbit" of the Southwest; 

 but it is not. In form, size and color, it may be 

 considered a connecting link between the vary- 

 ing hare group and the jack hare group, and 

 ite separate identity should be remembered. Its 

 home is the great sage-brush plains of the North- 

 west, from Kansas to the Saskatchewan, and 

 westward to Oregon, and northern California. It 

 is gray in summer, but changes to white in winter. 

 It is a large species (23 inches long), with ears 

 longer than its head, long, strong hind legs, and 

 a white tail unmarked with black, a character by 

 which it can be readily distinguished from other 

 jack "rabbits." 



On the treeless plains of the great West, where 

 it is often seen without any other objects to fur- 

 nish comparisons, it sometimes seems of immense 

 1 Lepus arc'ti-cus. ' Lepus cam-pes'tris. 



size, and a Prairie Hare 200 yards away has often 

 been mistaken for an antelope supposed to be fifiO 

 yards distant. 



The Jack Hare :; (commonly called Jack 

 "Rabbit") is easily recognized by his extremely 

 large ears, — five to six inches long, — slender 

 body, long legs and athletic build, and the black 

 mark on the upper surface of the tail. There are 

 seven species, all very much alike, which inhabit 

 the southwestern quarter of the United States, ex- 

 tend northward to Oregon, eastward to Nebraska 

 and Kansas and southward to Tehuantepec, 

 Mexico. In many localities wherein wolves and 

 foxes have been exterminated, these hares have 

 multiplied until they have become a great pest. 

 In several localities in California, and also in 

 eastern Colorado, great rabbit-drives are made, 

 in which many thousand Jacks are slaughtered, 

 and given away in large cities for food. 



The Jack Hare is a very swift runner. In east- 

 ern Kansas, Professor L. L. Dyche once saw a 

 good greyhound chase a Jack on fair ground for 

 about two and a half miles, and in the whole 

 distance the hound gained only about twenty- 

 five yards. The hare finally escaped by running 

 into a hollow log that had been left on the prairie 

 by accident, and was the only shelter within five 

 miles! 



The Gray Rabbit, or Cotton-Tail, 4 is a typi- 

 cal representative of the Rabbit Family, which 

 contains twelve species. Throughout the exten- 

 sive region which forms its home, — from New 

 England and Minnesota to Yucatan, — it refuses 

 to be exterminated, and is perhaps more fre- 

 quently seen and more widely known than any 

 other quadruped. 



All the true rabbits are small, and for long 

 running their legs are short and weak ; but what 

 they lack in endurance they make up in cunning 

 and quickness. To aid in their preservation, 

 Nature has given them colors that blend so per- 

 fectly with their surroundings that a rabbit 

 crouching low often is compelled to run to avoid 

 being trodden upon. When hard pressed for a 

 nesting place in a city, a Gray Rabbit has been 

 known to dig a shallow hole in the smooth lawn 

 of the Smithsonian grounds at Washington, line 

 it with her own fur, and rear her young in it, 

 within forty feet of the National Museum build- 

 ing, and a busy roadway, without discovery by 



3 Lepus tex-i-an'us. * Lepus syl-vat'i-ciis. 



