144 FOUR-FOOTED AMERICANS 



can possibly travel, that the journey seems about four 

 times as long- as it really is I "' 



" If we hear about Kabbits now, won't Dodo be dis- 

 appointed? " asked kind-hearted Rap. 



" I have pictures of them in my portfolio, and you 

 boys must remember and tell her all about them. 



" ( )f these four Kabbits the Wood Hare, the smallest 

 and prettiest, is something less than a foot and a half 

 long from the tip of his nose to the root of his cunning 

 little turned-up white tail." 



" Is that the way you measure fourfoots, to the he- 

 ;/innii></ of their tails?" asked Rap. "We measure 

 birds to the end of the tail." 



" Yes, but a bird's tail where it joins the body is so 

 overlaid with feathers that it is difficult to tell where it 

 begins and the body ends ; witli fourfoots it is differ- 

 ent. If I should tell you, for instance, that a Red Fox 

 was four feet long, you would tliink him much longer 

 tlian he is, and not understand his size as well as if I 

 said his body was two and a half and his tail one and a 

 half feet long." 



" Yes, I see ; if the tail was measured in, he would 

 seem a giant." 



" The Wood Hare has large eyes, long ears, the long 

 hind legs of the family, also fur snow-shoes on the soles 

 of his feet." 



" What good are such long back legs ? " asked Nat. 



" To jump with; every animal family has some par- 

 ticular way of movijig, — locomotion it is called, — and 

 Hares are leapers, which is told in the Latin name 

 lepus the Wise Men give them." 



" Does this Hare ever change color and moult ? " 



