18 JACK RABBITS OF THE UNITED STATES. 



The true California animal was formerly supposed to extend east- 

 ward to the Colorado Kiver and Arizona, but more recent investigations 

 show that it is restricted entirely to the region west of the Sierra. 

 Here, where the chaparral-covered slopes of the foothills dip down to 

 the valleys, it is most at home, mainly below an altitude of 3,000 

 feet. Earely does it range above 5,000 feet, although in one instance 

 at least, on Mount Pinos, it has been found higher than 8,000 feet. 

 But the individuals found at these higher levels are few in number, 

 and are probably only stragglers which have wandered up from the 

 lower foothills. It avoids the dark, damp forests of the redwood belt 

 on the Northwest coast; but finding suitable localities beyond the 

 limits of its native State, it has crossed the Siskiyou Mountains and 

 taken possession of the Rogue Kiver and Umpqua valleys in Oregon, 

 and is known to range as far north as Comstock, in Douglas County. 

 Mr. Clark P. Streator reports that a single specimen, probably a strag- 

 gler, was killed near Eugene, at the head of the Willamette Valley, 

 about November 20, 1893. To the south this species extends some 

 distance down the peninsula of Lower California. 



While the limits of certain portions of this range are readily under- 

 stood from well-marked conditions of climate and topography, it is by 

 no means easy to explain the invisible but ai)parently sharply «lelined 

 lines which separate the California and Texan rabbits in the great 

 interior valley of California. Here they i)robably mingle with one 

 another, but at no point are their habitats known to overla]> to 

 any great extent. Nor is it clear why the Texan Jack Rabbit, which 

 extends up the east slope of the Sierra as high as 7,000 feet and over 

 Walker pass (altitude 5,.'50O feet), should occupy only the bottom of the 

 San Jpaquin Valley below 2,000 feet. This i)art of its range is inclosed 

 on both sides by that of Lepus caUfoniicus, which is here restricted to 

 the foothills, but which spreads out to the north and covers the whole 

 expanse of the Sacramento Valley, as well as the slopes of the Sierra 

 Nevada and Coast Kanges. Brietly stated, the white-bellied s]>ecies is 

 found in the bottom of the San Joaquin Valley, while the buft-bellied 

 animal occupies the Sacramentc^ Valley and the adjacent foothills, as 

 "well as those surrounding the San Joaipiin Plains. 



The California Jack Uabbit is nowhere as abuiulant as the Texan 

 species. In some portions of the Coast Range only two or three indi- 

 viduals will be found over a large extent of country, and it is quite 

 rare in some of the valleys southeast of San Franciso Bay; but this is 

 due mainly to tlie settlement of the country, and the various means 

 adopted for its extermination. It is perhaps most abundant in the 

 Rogue River Valley, Oregon, along the western slope of the central 

 part of the Sierra Nevada, and in the San (iabriel and San Bernardino 

 valleys. 



In speaking of the California species T. S. Van Dyke' says: ''Few 

 animals are more graceful than this hare, whether skimming the 



i 



> Southern California, 1886, p. 131. 



