

NATURAL HISTORY. 
ZOOLOGICAL PARK SPECIMENS. 
The immense amount of work now in 
progress in the Zoological Park renders 
iz unwise to open the park to the public 
before September or October. About 250 
men are constantly employed on the var- 
ious buildings, dens, aviaries, walks, sew- 
ers, water lines, and other improvements; 
and with the steam drilling and blasting, 
excavating, hauling of stone, gravel and 
other materials, in addition to the work 
on the buildings, the Zoological Park is 
a very busy place. Ever since April Ist 
the present building season has been un- 
precedentedly fine. The rains have fallen 
at night and on Sundays, and scarcely a 
day has been lost on account of the 
weather. It is not possible in this issue 
to describe at length the various improve- 
_ments, and I shall reserve the whole sub- 
ject until the park is opened to the pub- 
lic. One important feature, however, must 
be noticed. To the Page Woven Wire 
Fence Co. was given the contract for the 
erection of all the fences for the big game 
ranges, and corrals, and the park bound- 
ary, at a cost of $10,802. On July Ist. 
nearly 15 days ahead of contract time, the 
company completed the erection of 5% 
miles of Page Woven Wire fence, on bond 
steel posts set in concrete, and it ic safe 
to say these are the finest fences to be 
found in any zoological garden or pre- 
serve in the world, either public or pri- 
vate. The posts will be painted green, and 
the wire itself is so nearly invisible that it 
does not detract in the least from the beau- 
ty and openness of the park. 
The readers of RECREATION are respond- 
ing generously to my call for ‘speci- 
mens for the Zoological Park, and 
already a number of fine birds have been 
received. In the October issue will be 
published a list of donations received up to 
September 1st. For good reasons, chiefly 
connected with the safety of the public, 
the society has decided to put no animals 
on exhibition until the park is really 
opened to the public, and in order to carry 
out this idea, a large temporary enclosure 
has been erected in the center of the park, 
where all specimens now being received 
are made comfortable in temporary quar- 
ters until the day arrives to place every- 
thing on exhibition. 

THEY DO SWIM. 
Under the caption of “A Swimming 
Skunk and Rabbits,” in REecREATION for 
July, p. 58, Mr. McDermott expresses sur> 
prise at shooting 4 Swimming animal in 
Alabama and finding that it was a ‘“‘rab- 
bit.” I put quotation marks on the name 
rabbit because there is not, properly speak- 
ing, a wild rabbit in America unless in 
corfinement or descended from imported 
animals. To be exact, rabbits are social, 
living jn cclonies and making burrows like 
prairie degs. Their young are brought tnto 
the world naked and blind. Hares never 
burtow, but construct forms or nests, in 
which they hide and bring forth their 
young, which are covered with hair and 
have the eyes open. Some hares, as our 
common “‘cotton-tail,’ make use of holes 
in the ground made by other animals, but 
they are solitary and have no system of con- 
necting tunnels, such as rabbits make. All 
American “rabbits” are hares, but we’ve 
always called ’em “rabbits” and always 
will. I merely write in the interest of truth 
not expecting to change a popular name. 
I am obliged to Mr. McDermott for call- 
ing me out, so that I can split hairs (?) 
with him. We have at least 5 hares, as a 
bald fact. These are fortunately in one 
group and may be combed out as I shall 
presently show. First, allowing scientific 
duffers the privilege of giving the genus 
the old Latin name of Lepus, which was 
what they called a hare or a rabbit, (and 
when you come to look at the long jumps 
some of these fellows can record in the 
snow “Leap-us” is not half bad), we have: 
1. L. palustris, the marsh hare, tail gray- 
ish, not cottony, body yellowish brown, 
length 17 in.; skull 4% as wide as long; 
Southern Illinois and in the South, found 
in swamps. 
2. L. aquaticus, the water hare, a ‘‘cot- 
ton tail,” skull not % its length, body yel- 
lowish brown, white below, length 22 in. 
Southern Illinois to Louisiana and South- 
west; in canebrakes and about lowland 
streams. 
3. L. sylvaticus, the cotton tail, “Molly 
cotton,” the common “rabbit” from Massa- 
217 
chusetts, South; length 18 in. 
4. L. Americanus, the “white rabbit,” 
“Northern hare,’ brown in summer and 
white in winter; length 20 in., found in 
heavy timber along the Alleghanies and 
North to the Canadian line. The European 
hare, L. timidus, a larger animal, here re- 
places it and ranges to Hudson’s Bay. 
5. L. campestris, the jack rabbit, ears 
longer than head, white in winter and yel- 
lowish gray in summer, tail all white and 
longer than in otler species; length 23 in., 
range from Kansas to Oregon. 
