40 The Mammals of Colorado 
by entirely white ones, while the new coat of under fur is white- 
tipped, with pale fulvous base. In the spring, the change is the 
reverse, beginning with the back and head, while the feet are usually 
the parts to be last affected. This change is rather irregular in 
individuals, and at the same time specimens may be taken in quite 
different stages of the moult. Three specimens in my collection, 
taken at Sulphur Springs, Grand County, illustrate this very nicely. 
One, taken April 21st, has a dark patch on the rump, and others 
showing elsewhere; another, killed on the 23d, is grayish and 
brown all over the back and top of head; while a third, taken on the 
24th, has just a little of the dark coat beginning to show through 
the white one. These animals were all killed in the same patch of 
spruce timber, and the snow was from two to three feet deep there 
at the time. Specimens taken at that locality April 1st are in 
practically the full w^inter pelage. 
The skull is rather long and slender, with slender postorbital 
processes, the posterior portions of which are widely separated 
from the skull, and not attached thereto; nasals and rostrum 
narrow. 
Distribution. — Higher parts of the Rocky Mountains from New 
Mexico north through western Wyoming and eastern Utah into 
Montana and Idaho at least to the north boundary of the United 
States ; its exact northern limit is not known to me. It is also found 
in. eastern Oregon and Washington. In Colorado it is found in the 
mountains from 7,500 feet up to near timber-line, almost always 
in brushy or timbered districts, but has been known as low as 
6,500 feet in Gunnison County, in winter. It is not known to me 
to occur in the Pike's Peak Range. 
Habits. — The Snowshoe Rabbit is found in the forests 
in the high mountains, not only in the more open woods com- 
posed of large timber, but also in the thick second growth 
of small trees which spring up to replace those destroyed by 
fire, or which have been cut down for lumber; it also frequents 
the thickets of willows along the streams in the high mountain 
parks. This rabbit does not live in burrows, but makes a 
form under a bush or tuft of grass, and it is in nests made 
in such situations that the young are born. These may be 
from two to six in number, and are born some time in the 
late spring or early summer, but we have no exact evidence 
bearing on our Colorado animals. 
