266 GNAWING ANIMALS 



to cover, and their marvellous agility in doubling and turn- 

 ing when pursued, their numerous enemies would soon ex- 

 terminate them. 



The Polar Hare^ is the most northern species of this 

 family. Colonel Brainard found its tracks at 83° 24', which 

 for fifteen years remained 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 

 varying-hare group and the jack-hare group, and its separate 

 identity should be remembered. Its home is the great sage- 

 brush plains of the Northwest, from Kansas to the Sas- 

 katchewan, 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 furnish comparisons, it 

 sometimes seems of immense size, and a Prairie Hare 200 

 yards away has often been mistaken for an antelope sup- 

 posed to be 600 yards distant. 



^ Lepus arc'ti-cus. ^ Lejiua cam-pes'tris. 



