THE QUADRUPEDS OF ARIZONA. 583 
in its form; though it hardly squats so pertinaciously, 
nor is it so easily concealed as the little Sage Rabbit, on 
account of its size. Trembling at heart, yet with motion- 
less body and eyes intently regarding the intruder, it sits 
all doubled up, as it were, the head drawn in, and the 
long ears laid flat upon its back, until one may almost 
touch it, when, with a great bound, it straightens out, 
clears the first intervening bush, and is off like the wind. 
It has a long swinging gallop, and performs prodigious 
leaps, some of them over bushes four feet high; now in 
the air, its feet all drawn together and down stretched ; 
now on the ground, which it touches and rebounds from 
with marvellous elasticity. It will course thus for a 
hundred yards or so, and then stop as suddenly as it 
started ; and, sitting erect, its long wide open ears, vibra- 
ting with excitement, are turned in every direction to 
catch the sound of following danger. The eye and hand 
of the sportsman who would cut short the first rush of the 
Hare must be quick, or he will be more likely to behold 
only a “rear elevation” of his game than to see it lying 
upon its side in the agonies of death, playing the prelude 
to its last appearance, in the culminating scene of its brief 
life’s drama. 
The skin of this species is very thin, tender, and easily 
torn, and nearly worthless for any practical purpose. 
After parted with by its owner, it is only fit for a natural- 
ist to puzzle over, in the attempt to determine its species. 
In the regions where I studied the animals, there is no 
appreciable difference in color, between summer and win 
ter pelages. They are always yellowish fulvous above, 
grizzled. with gray, dusky, and black; and dull white 
below, tinged with fulvous on the throat. There is a 
longitudinal arios of pure black on the rump, and ex- 
