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Cincinnati Society of Natural History. 



the "jackass rabbit," {Lepus Callotis) can climb over the ground when it 

 tries. Ever since I read Mark Twain's account of this animal I wanted 

 to make its acquaintance, and when in Southern New Mexico I was 

 gratified. I did not see any until I reached the Mesilla Valley, but there 

 they were abundant, but very difficult to shoot, as they ran away so quickly 

 it was almost impossible to stop them. I only got a few by accident; the 

 speciman exhibited ran past where I was hid in some mesquite bushes. I 

 banged a charge of No. 8 shot broadside into him. When \ went down to him, 

 his sad, yellow-brown eyes bulged out a quarter inch, filled with reproach, 

 (and sand) seemed to say : " How could you be guilty of so cowardly an 

 act as that?" He was going as if he had forgotten something and when the 

 shot hit him he could not stop long enough to die, but went fifty or sixty 

 feet down the hill head over heels. Mark Twain says of the speed of this 

 animal, " But one must shoot at the creature once if he wishes to see him 

 throw his heart into his heels, and do the best he knows how. He is fright- 

 ened clear through now, and he lays his long ears down on his back and 

 straightens himself out like a yard stick every spring he makes, and scat- 

 ters miles behind him with an easy indifference that is enchanting. Our 

 party made this specimen hump himself, as the conductor said. The 

 Secretary started him with a shot from the colt, I commenced spitting at 

 him with my weapon and all in the same instant the old alien's whole 

 broadside let go with a rattling crash, and it is not putting it too strong 

 to 'say the rabbit was frantic ; he dropped his ears, set up his tail and left 

 for San Francisco at a speed that can only be described as a flash and a 

 vanish ; long after he was out of sight, we could hear him "whiz ! " It was 

 likely the " prairie hare " he alludes to, as it is the species in the country 

 he was in. The true "jackass rabbit " can play all around this animal in 

 running if he tries. 



Two Lepus CaUotis and several Lepus Syhaticus confined together in an 

 inclosure at the Zoological Garden, fought in a desperate manner, both of 

 the Lepus Callotis were killed outright, the fur being almost stripped from 

 their backs. The little hares attacked them with their fore-feet. Lepus 

 Sy '7>aticus will fight with great fury among themselves, making the hair 

 fly in every direction. 



Our hare Lepus Syhaticus is attacked by a large fly, called Cutrebra 

 OunicuK, which lays an egg in its back; this egg hatches into a larvae that 

 burrows under the skin and makes a sort of pocket in which it lives and 

 sucks nourishment from the animal. I exhibit a specimen taken from 

 the back of a hare ; the animal was emaciated and weak. This larvae is 

 nearly full fed and is much shrunken from drying; so you can imagine 



