38 The Mammals of Colorado 
bryos; one killed at Bailey's Ranch, Eagle County, altitude 
6,500 feet. May 25, 1907, contained three young which would 
have been born that day. One taken near Yampa, Routt 
County, 7,700 feet. May 28, 1907, was nursing. August 5, 
1907, two females were killed on Baldy Mountain, near 
Boreas Pass, Summit County, at an elevation of 12,000 feet; 
one of these contained four young about ready for birth, and 
the other five which would have been born in a week or less. 
The lateness of the date suggests that they may have been 
second litters. It seems as if the young born at such a late 
date at this altitude would hardly be large enough to take 
care of themselves before winter would set in, which it does 
very early at such elevations, beginning with the first storms in 
early October, and even late September; after this the nights 
are cold, and the snow which falls persists on the northerly 
slopes, and soon all the mountains are covered. Yet the 
rabbits winter in these regions, very probably keeping about 
those spots where the high winds sweep all or almost all the 
snow away. The thick scrubby spruces just at timber-line 
afford excellent shelter against the weather. Mr. H. L. 
Curtiss tells me that he has seen them at 12,000 feet on Fair- 
view Mountain, near Pitkin, Gunnison County, in midwinter, 
and that they kept about these wind-swept places. In the 
summer we found them just at the very edge of timber-line, 
at the last trees, where there were smooth grassy slopes. 
These rabbits will, sometimes at least, use burrows, for 
one was seen near Yampa to enter a hole, and was captured 
in a trap set at the entrance. 
In weight these rabbits vary from six to nine pounds, 
specimens having been weighed at various seasons. 
Lepus bairdi. Rocky Mountain Snowshoe Rabbit 
Lepus bairdi Hayden, Amer. Nat., iii., p. 115 (1869). 
Type locality. — Near Fremont Peak, Wind River Mountains, 
Wyoming. 
