COTTONTAIL RABBITS. 



3 



delicacy of taste in their selection of certain varieties of cultivated 

 plants and in their neglect of others of the same species. Prof. C. V. 

 Piper reports that in Oregon rabbits ate Arabian alfalfa down to 

 the ground, while they did little or no damage to other varieties 

 grown in surrounding plats. Prof. C. A. Mooers, of the Tennessee 

 Agricultural Experiment Station, reports similar observations in 

 regard to their taste for soy beans, stating that they greatly relish 

 the mammoth yellow variety and that it is practically the only one 

 that suffers from their depredations. When favorite foods are absent 

 rabbits resort to whatever is available. It is during summer droughts 



B72M 



Fig. 1. — Cottontail rabbit in its " form." 



or when deep snows cut off ordinary supplies that the animals attack 

 the bark of growing trees or shrubs. 



PROTECTION OF RABBITS. 



Cottontail rabbits are valuable for food and afford excellent sport 

 for gunners. In many States, especially east of the Mississippi 

 River, they are protected as game. In fruit-growing and truck- 

 farming districts farmers regard them with disfavor, and there is 

 considerable rivalry between sportsmen and farmers to have their 

 opposing views reflected in game laws. The interests of the two 

 classes do not seriously differ, however, for when rabbits are closely 



