PRAIRIE HARE. 15 



the plains. Captain Lewis measured the leaps of this animal, and found them 

 commonly from 18 to 21 feet. They are generally found separate, and are nerer 

 seen to associate in greater numbers than two or three.' 



The White- tailed Jack Eabbit has an extended range in the northern 

 part of the Great Basin and on the Great Plains. It is said to be found 

 as far north as latitude 55° in Saskatchewan and ranges eastward to 

 Lake Winnipeg, Elk Eiver, Minnesota, and central Iowa. On the 

 south it is not found on the plains much below central Kansas and 

 southern Colorado — Fort Eiley and Pendennis, Kans., and Las Animas, 

 Colo.jbeiug near its southern limits. On the Rocky Mountain plateau, 

 however, it goes a little farther south and has been taken at Fort Gar- 

 land, Colo., and at Kanab, Utah. The Sierra jSTevada and Cascade 

 Eange mark the limits of its western distribution, but it occurs in the 

 Sierra as far south as Hope Valley (lat. 38° 30'), and probably as far as 

 latitude 36°. 



Although called 'Prairie Hare,' it ranges high up in the mountains — 

 at least in summer — higher than any other jack rabbit. In August, 

 1891, I saw a large rabbit, probably belonging to this species, at an 

 altitude of about 10,000 feet in the Sierra JS'evada, about 20 miles south 

 of Mount Whitney. Signs of their presence have been found in the 

 Rocky Mountains far above timber line and nearly to the summits of the 

 higher peaks. It is hardly probable that jack rabbits spend the winter 

 at such altitudes, but the upper limit of their winter range still remains 

 to be ascertained. Abundant food in the mountain meadows and above 

 timber line probably tempts them to ascend from lower levels in summer 

 just as cultivated helds on the plains attract them from a distance. 



In the mountains and in the northern part of their range they become 

 pure white in wintei", but in Kansas, Nebraska, Washington, and else- 

 where near the southern limit of their habitat they undergo only a 

 partial change, or do not turn white at ail. In southern Oregon the 

 rabbits inhabiting the higher mountains are said to turn white in win- 

 ter, while a little lower down they undergo only a i3artial change and 

 in the valleys do not assume the white pelage. 



This species probably never occurs in such numbers as the Black- 

 tailed Jack Rabbit, even under the most favorable .circumstances. Dr. 

 Coues speaks of it on the Great Plains as follows: 



Nor is the Prairie Hare in the least gregarious. I have never seen nor heard 

 of several together, and indeed it is rare to iind even two together, at any season 

 whatever. It is one of the most solitary animals with which I have become 

 acquainted. * * * j have never found any kind of locality even, which, pre- 

 senting special attractions, might invite many hares together. All places are alike 

 to them ; the oldest frontiersman, jirobably, could never guess with any degree of 

 certainty where the next hare to bound off before him w ould ajjpear. If it have any 

 preference, however, it is for ' weedy' tracts, of which the sage-brush regions furnish 

 the best examples ; there it finds shelter which the low, crisp, grass of rolling prairie 

 does not afford, and also doubtless secures a greater variety of food.^ 



I Coues' Edition Hist. Exped. Lewis and Clark, Vol. Ill, 1893, pp 865-866. 

 ' Bull. Essex Institute, VII (1875), 1876, pp. 80-81. 



