96 
ORDERS OF MAMMALS— GNAWING ANIMALS 
common rabbit, and the jack hare of the South- 
west. Large male specimens measure 18 inches 
in length of head and body, tail, 2 inches, and 
weigh 6 pounds. 
Like the true fur-bearing animals, Varying 
Hares have two kinds of fur, — a dense, fine and 
soft under fur through which grows a storm-coat 
of thin, coarse, straight hair. It is the latter 
which gives an animal its color. In the summer 
these long hairs are black, but as winter ap- 
proaches they turn white. 
The habits of the Varying Hares and Rabbits 
are so nearly the same that it is unnecessary 
to describe them separately. They all require 
brushy ground, broken rocks, rugged ravines or 
tree-holes in which to hide from the foxes, dogs, 
men, mink, martens, lynxes, skunks and birds of 
prey which constantly hunt them as food. But 
for their keenness of sight, hearing and scent, 
their swiftness in running to cover, and their 
marvellous agility in doubling and turning when 
pursued, their numerous enemies would soon 
exterminate them. 
The Polar Hare 1 is the most northern spe- 
cies of this Family. Colonel Brainard found its 
tracks at 83° 24', which for fifteen years re- 
mained man’s “ farthest North.” In the southern 
portion of its home, this hare is gray and white 
in summer, but in the higher polar regions it is 
white all the year round, like the majority of true 
arctic animals, — the owl, fox, bear and wolf. 
The Prairie Hare 2 of the western plains is 
generally supposed to be of the same species as 
the so-called jack “rabbit” of the Southwest; 
but it is not. In form, size and color, it may be 
considered a connecting link between the vary- 
ing hare group and the jack hare group, and 
its separate identity should be remembered. Its 
home is the great sage-brush plains of the North- 
west, from Kansas to the Saskatchewan, and 
westward to Oregon, and northern California. It 
is gray in summer, but changes to white in winter. 
It is a large species (23 inches long), with ears 
longer than its head, long, strong hind legs, and 
a white tail unmarked with black, a character by 
which it can be readily distinguished from other 
jack “rabbits.” 
On the treeless plains of the great West, where 
it is often seen without any other objects to fur- 
nish comparisons, it sometimes seems of immense 
1 Lepus arc'ti-cus. 2 Lepus cam-pes'tris. 
size, and a Prairie Hare 200 yards away has often 
been mistaken for an antelope supposed to be 600 
yards distant. 
The Jack Hare 3 (commonly called Jack 
“Rabbit”) is easily recognized by his extremely 
large ears, — five to six inches long, — slender 
body, long legs and athletic build, and the black 
mark on the upper surface of the tail. There are 
seven species, all very much alike, which inhabit 
the southwestern quarter of the United States, ex- 
tend northward to Oregon, eastward to Nebraska 
and Kansas and southward to Tehuantepec, 
Mexico. In many localities wherein wolves and 
foxes have been exterminated, these hares have 
multiplied until they have become a great pest. 
In several localities in California, and also in 
eastern Colorado, great rabbit-drives are made, 
in which many thousand Jacks are slaughtered, 
and given away in large cities for food. 
The Jack Hare is a very swift runner. In east- 
ern Kansas, Professor L. L. Dyche once saw a 
good greyhound chase a Jack on fair ground for 
about two and a half miles, and in the whole 
distance the hound gained only about twenty- 
five yards. The hare finally escaped by running 
into a hollow log that had been left on the prairie 
by accident, and was the only shelter within five 
miles ! 
The Gray Rabbit, or Cotton-Tail , 4 is a typi- 
cal representative of the Rabbit Family, which 
contains twelve species. Throughout the exten- 
sive region which forms its home, — from New 
England and Minnesota to Yucatan, — it refuses 
to be exterminated, and is perhaps more fre- 
quently seen and more widely known than any 
other quadruped. 
All the true rabbits are small, and for long 
running their legs are short and weak ; but what 
they lack in endurance they make up in cunning 
and quickness. To aid in their preservation, 
Nature has given them colors that blend so per- 
fectly with their surroundings that a rabbit 
crouching low often is compelled to run to avoid 
being trodden upon. When hard pressed for a 
nesting place in a city, a Gray Rabbit has been 
known to dig a shallow hole in the smooth lawn 
of the Smithsonian grounds at Washington, line 
it with her own fur, and rear her young in it, 
within forty feet of the National Museum build- 
ing, and a busy roadway, without discovery by 
3 Lepus tex-i-an'us. 4 Lepus syl-vat'i-cus. 
