184 CALIFORNIA MAMMALS. 



Family Leporidse Hares and Rabbits. 



Skulli long and narrow ; two lower incisors ; four upper in- 

 cisors, the middle pair large and deeply grooved in front, the sec- 

 ond pair small and hidden behind the first pair (in very young 

 hares there is a minute third pair which are soon shed) ; molars 

 rootless; rami of lower jaw wide and thin; facial surface of max- 

 illa extensively perforated or reticulated; a perforation between 

 the eye sockets ; collar bones present but usually imperfect ; size 

 large. 



The Hare family contains but two genera, about forty spec- 

 ies and several subspecies. It is best represented in North America. 

 There are several Old AVorld species, but the family has no repre- 

 sentative in Australia. 



The food is entirely vegetable, mostly the leaves, stems or 

 branches of a variety of plants and sma.ll shrubs, which are bitten 

 off and eaten on the spot. In some regions they damage young 

 orchards and vineyards, and occasionally they become sufficiently 

 abundant to seriously harm grain crops. The family is of some 

 economic importance as a source of food supply, the animals be- 

 ing of sufficient size to be worth hunting and the flesh being pal- 

 ateable. 



Hares are digitigrade, terrestrial, principally crepuscular and 

 nocturnal. In most species there is little change of color with 

 age, sex or season, but some northern: species undergo a complete 

 change of color twice a year, being brownish in summer and white 

 in winter. 



The mammas are numerous, usually five pairs, abdominal. 

 The number of young are variable with species and region, the 

 European Rabbit having several litters each year, each litter 

 averaging half a dozen or more ; while most American Hares have 

 but two or three litters annually, and these seldom number more 

 than four or five. The young of the European Rabbit are born 

 blind and hairless in an underground nest, but the the American 

 species of Hares are well haired at birth and can see and very 

 soon care for themselves. 



