4 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[July 4, 1896. 
THE JACK RABBITS. 
An interestine p^ppr by Dr. T. S. Palmer, on The Jack 
Rab>iit8 of the United States, has recently been issued by 
the Dppartment of Agriculture as Bulletin No. 8 of the 
Division of Ornithology and Mammalogy. The pappr will 
have an especial interest for those whose homes are be- 
tween the Missouri River and the Pacific Ocean. 
The p!ip9r is written with particular reference to the 
injury done by jack rabbits to the farmers' crops, and 
with this purpose it gives a general account of the dis- 
tribution and habits of the various pp°cies found in 
the United States, shows the methods which have been 
used to exterminate the animals and to protect crops 
from their depredations, and brings together facts and 
suits until further experiments have been tried. Poison 
also seems to be of little value where the animals are 
numerous, and boimties, of course, are quite hopeless. 
The fostering of the natural enemies of this rabbit might 
seem to promise more than any of the methods under con- 
sideration, were it not that the rabbit is so large an 
animal that many of its enemies will be regarded as 
likely to do harm to the farmer's poultry and small stcok. 
Shooting by wholesale and driving seem to be the only 
methods which have as yet accomplished much toward 
the destruction of these animals. 
The statement is given that in 155 drives, made in Cali- 
fornia, 370,195 rabbits were killed, an average of 3,400 in 
each drive. The largest number given as killed in any 
one year in California is a little over 65,000 rabbits m 
THE BEGlNNINa OF THE END. 
figures concerning the economic uses of rabbits in general 
for the purpose of indicating how our native epscies may 
be more generally utilized. 
The jack rabbits, as is well known, inhabit the great 
plains and deserts of the Western United States and are 
large hares. Their distribution is quite general from 
Mpxico into the British Possessions. They are quick to 
take advantage of the cultivation of the ground and the 
growing of green crops, which has followed the settle- 
ment o£ the West and the methods of irrigation practiced 
by the farmers, and their dfpredations in many places 
are important. Before the plains were cultivated, these 
hares no doubt subsisted largely on buffalo and grama 
grass, and in the more arid region of the great basin they 
are known to feed on certain species of greasewood and 
cactus. Wherever found, jack rabbits usually seem in 
good condition, except that from time to time, like many 
other hares, they are destroyed by epidemic disease, 
which may periodically almost exterminate them over a 
large region. 
Dr. Palmer states that jack rabbits may be seen abroad 
at almost any hour of the day, but our experience is that 
as a rule they move about but little in 
the daytime, and when seen it is usually 
because Ihey are frightened. On the 
other hand, just before sundown in the 
vening raobits may often be seen in 
great numbers coming down from the 
hills toward favorite feeding places, 
such as wet meadows alnng the little 
streams. During the day they are 
likely to sit still and doze under the 
shadow of bushes, or even in the shade 
cast by a telegraph pole. 
In many sectione where the jack 
ribbit was formerly rather scarce the 
species has increased enormously as 
soon as the land was settled. This in- 
crease may be regarded as having two 
causes: (1) The destruction of their 
natural enemies, and (2) the greatly 
increased food supply. Some idea of 
the extent of the injury which they do 
to crcps can be formed when it is said 
that the damage caused by jack rabbits 
to the crcps in Tulare county, Cali- 
fornia, during a single year has been 
estimated at $600 000, and that one 
county in Idaho has actually expended 
more than $30,000 in bounty on these 
pasts. 
Dr. Palmer gives five species of these 
rabbits, which he divides into two 
groups, one including the prairie hare 
or wnite-tail rabbit {Lepus campestris), 
and the other group containing the 
black- tail jack rabbiis {Lepus calif or- 
nicus, melanotis. alleni, texiamis). All 
these are defacribed and some account 
is given of their habits. A short chap- 
ter is devoted to the abundance and 
rapid increase of the species, and 
another to injury of crops and means 
of protection. 
In the chapter on Methods of Destruc- 
tion, inoculation is referred to; but so 
little seems to be known about this that 
it does Bot proioise any important re- 
twelve drives, but it is said that 20,000 have been killed in 
a single drive. In the year 1895 the number fell to 11,000 
rabbits killed in twelve drives. Dr. Palmer is of the opin- 
ion that the settling up of the country, the value of the 
rabbity as food, of their skins as articles of trade, and the 
practice of coursing them, will have a tendency to keep 
down the increase of these animals to the point where 
they will not be unduly destructive. 
He concludes, among other things, that the best means 
of protecting crops from the attacks of rabbits, and in 
fact the only method which can be relied upon, is the use 
of rabbit- proof fences, and that commercial utilization is 
the most promising and least expansive method of keep- 
ing these p^sts in check in localities where they are un- 
usually abundant; but that returns from this source will 
only partially oilset the losses sustained on account of 
injury to crops. 
We present with this cuts taken from J^r. Palmer's 
paper on the jack rabbit, which we owe to the kindness 
of the Biological Survey of the Agricultural D partment. 
The first is especially interesting as showing the method 
of constructing the corrals and the waj^ of drivin|. 
COLOR OF THE SCARLET TANAGER. 
During the months of April and May, 1896, my son 
collected and preservpd fifteen specimens of the ecarlet 
tanager (Piranga erythromelas) in Montgomery county, 
Maryland, immediately beyond the northeastern bound- 
ary of the District of Columbia. Of these birds thirteen 
are males and two are females; and the first one, a male, 
WHS shot on April 17, all of the others being taken upon 
different dates during the following month. 
Now the off-hand, routine method of describing the 
phimage of the male of this species is well exemplified by 
Cones in his "Key," where he says: " 6 adult: crimson or 
scarlet; wings and tail black; bill and feet dark horn 
color. * * * Adult males often show abnormal color- 
ing, the body being yellow, orange, or flame 
color; or red patches appearing on the wing 
coverts; $ said to change back to plumage of 
S at each fall molt (?)" (p. 318, zd ed.) In 
this description there is not a word said about 
the outer tail feathers being tipped with white 
in many specimens, a fact observed long ago 
by Wilson, who speaks of it in his work, where 
he also calls attention to "the interior edges of 
the wing feathers [being] nearly white." 
Wilson observed, too, that "it is also probable 
that the old males regularly change their color 
and have a summer and winter dress; but this 
further observations must determine." Dar- 
win, quoting Audubon, says: "In the United 
States some few of the males of the scarUt 
tanager {Tanagra rubra) have 'a beautiful 
transverse band of glowing red on the smaller 
wing coverts,' but this variation seems to be 
somewhat rare, so that its preservation through 
sexual selection would follow only under un- 
ueuaJly favorable circumstances" ("The 
Descent of Man," ed. 18B2, p. 434). 
Of all the scarlet tanagers collected by the 
present writer, perhaps a hundred males or 
more, I recollect but one fipecimen wherein 
the red on the wing was represented by a 
"transverse band" of the smaller wing coverts, 
though a few scattered scarlet feathers in that 
locality were not uncommon. Sometimes 
this was to be seen only upon one side, occa- 
sionally it was only a single feather; or other 
variations might be presented. In the thirteen 
specimens now before me (malef) there are 
but two of them that show a few scattered 
scarlet feathers among the smaller wing 
coverts, and these are irregularly placed. The 
most unusual feature here, however, is that in 
one of these birds these features are [notJ;,en- 
tirely scarlet, but are so only upon one side of 
the rhachis, the other side being entirely 
black; in other words, each of the small 
feathers in question is scarlet and black, and 
not entirely of the former color. In further 
examining these specimens, I meet with a color phase not 
elsewhere noticed by me before, nor do I find it anywhere 
described in the books. Two individuals show it, both 
very nearly full plumaged, breeding males. In the one 
where it is the least apparent it simply consists in a tinge- 
ing of the ends of the scarlet feathers in the interscapular 
region of the middle of the dorsum with black. This pe- 
culiar shading in the 8econd:;Jndividual is quite pro- 
nounced upon the capital and nuchal regions, while in 
the interscapular area of the "dorsum one or two of the 
feathers are actually black, scarlet edged with black, or 
black and scarlet, giving this particular specimen in real- 
ity a black and scarlet back. As the two colors are very 
distinct in some instances upon^Jone and the same feather, 
this remarkable variation not only becomes interesting as 
such, but it has an added interest, due to the fact that at 
the present writing the molt of birds is attracting not 
a little attention of naturalists both here and abroad. 
That this peculiar color phase is not as frequent as some 
would suppose is easily proven by examining series of male 
scarlet tanagers in large poUections. This the writer has 
done, Through the courtesy of Mr. 0- W. Richmond, of 
MAP ggoWJNQ DISTEJBUTTON OF PBAIBIB BA&m AND J4Q5 BABgJprS.. 
