Mammals Rabbits and Hares 
are very sensitive, and hear the least noise at a long 
distance. The eyes are keen and placed on the bulg- 
ing part of the head, so as to see in all directions. 
The nose is sensitive, and is always moving to pick 
up stray smells; and above all, the hind legs are long 
and strong, and enable these creatures to flee from 
danger with great rapidity and ease. 
- The cottontails like briar patches, and fields partly 
covered, with brush, and partly with grass. They 
make runways through stich places by cutting away 
the small stems and grasses. A runway is usually 
about five inches wide, and just high enough so the 
hare can flee through. These roads cross and criss- 
cross each other, and if a dog or fox is chasing the 
hare, there is little chance for it to follow in these 
intricate cross roads. The cottontails find the night 
safest for feeding and wandering and playing. They 
play amusing games among themselves,—something 
like tag, and leap-frog. 
In America we have no species of true rabbits, al- 
though we call them by that name. Instead, they 
are hares. The difference between a rabbit and a 
hare is not very great structurally, although the rab- 
bit is not so adept in running or jumping as the hare. 
The chief difference between the two lies in their 
habits. The rabbits are burrowing animals, while 
the hares live in ‘‘forms’’, which are nests on the sur- 
face of the ground, consisting of grass, beaten down 
or eaten out for a space large enough to accommodate 
the animal; the form is made in a protected situa- 
tion, under a bush ortree. Hares rarely nest in holes, 
but sometimes, when hard pressed by dogs, they 
take refuge in a woodchuck burrow. 
Hares and rabbits are not without means of de- 
fense. Either can fight an enemy by leaping over 
66 
