TEXAN JACK RABBIT. 19 



plain before the outstretched greyhound or aroused from his '■ form' 

 he dashes away with high jumps, as if to take a better view of the' 

 intruder, or stopping and rearing upon his hind legs, stands erect, with 

 ears pointed at the zenith and surveys him at safe distance, then 

 again lengthens out his trim form and hugs the ground like a racer 

 until a mile away. Sometimes at early morning or evening you may 

 see him scudding along the plain as if in play, running 2 or 3 miles, 

 perhaps, most of the time at high speed. * * * ^ A^ne runner he 

 is, too, and gifted with good staying qualities. It takes a good grey- 

 Ijound to overtake the best of them, while the slowest ones distance a 

 common dog at every bound." 



Black-tailed Jack Rabbit, Texan Jack Rabbit. 

 {Lepus texianus Waterliouse.') 



This hare is pale-gray above, often tinged with brownish and mixed 

 with black 5 the lower surface of the body and tail is white, while the 

 tips of the ears and upper i)art of the tail are distinctly marked with 

 black. In length it measures about 25^ i)iches (647 mm.^) from the tij) 

 of the nose to the end of the tail vertebrae and weighs 4 or 5 pounds. 

 The ears average 6f inches (171 mm.) but the tail is only 4^ inches (109 

 mm.) in length. The Black-tailed Hare is smaller than either the Prairie 

 Hare or Allen's Hare, but is about the same size as the California Jack 

 Eabbit. Si)ecimens from southern Arizona are not as large as those 

 from the central -psbrt of the Territory and other portions of the Great 

 Basin region, and for this reason have been recently separated by Dr. 

 J. A. Allen ^ as a subspecies or race called the Desert Hare {Lepus 

 texianus eremious). 



Usually it is not difficult to distinguish the Black-tailed Hare from 

 other species found in the same region. In the northern parts of its 

 range it occurs along with the Prairie Hare in some ]3arts of Oregon, 

 Washington, Idaho, Colorado, Nebraska, and Kansas, but here the lat- 

 ter [Lepus campestris) may be recognized by its white tail, larger size, 

 and more or less complete change of pelage in winter — no black-tailed 

 species showing any tendency to turn white in winter. 



The Texan Rabbit will hardly be confused with the larger and longer 

 limbed Allen's Hare in southern Arizona, after they have once been 

 seen together, but it is sometimes difficult to distinguish it from the 

 California Jack. Although typical specimens of the latter are buff 

 instead of white below and have the lower surface of the tail buff, those 

 from the foothills bordering the San Joaquin Valley in California are 



'Under this name are included all tlie black-tailed, jack rabbits, except iej>t{s alleni, 

 which are found from the Eocky Mountains west to the Sierra Nevada and. Cascade 

 Range. 



^Average of 9 specimens collected by Dr. E. A. Mearns at Fort Verde, Ariz. (Bull. 

 Am. Mus. Nat Hist., II, Feb. 1890, 302.) 



3Ibid., VI, Dec. 20, 1894, pp. 347-348. 



