CHAPTER XIII. 
HARES. 
ALTHOUGH it is common in America to hear different 
species of hares designated by the name of rabbit, this is 
one of those extraordinary mistakes in nomenclature, in 
reference to the fauna of the American continent, of which 
T have previously spoken; for no true rabbit is to be found 
there, except in a state of domestication. In other words, 
they are not indigenous to the land. The little wood hare, 
so very abundant on the verge of cultivation that adjoins 
prairie land, might well have been confused with the other 
rodent, but when we find the Townsend hare and jackass 
hare, both remarkable for their size and strongly-marked 
characteristics of race, also called rabbits, such obviously 
erroneous misnomers appear intentional, and therefore cul- 
pable. 
The little wood hare is to be found in large numbers in 
all those States whose rivers are tributaries of the Missis- 
sippi, their favorite haunts being neglected—overgrown old 
clearings or uncultivated land that the heavy timber has 
been cut off. With beagles they would afford admirable 
sport, but for their habit of seeking shelter when pursued 
in decayed logs or hollow trees, their claws being so sharp 
that they can ascend the cavity in the interior of a perpen- 
dicular girdling from ten to twenty feet, and it is no unu- 
sual occurrence to find a dozen, or even more, of these pret- 
ty little creatures in the same retreat. This species is al- 
most unknown in Canada. 
The sportsman, wishing to make a bag of them, should 
