98 
BLACK TAILED HARE. 
of cactus or chapparal. Now on came both Hare and hunter, and 
the race was of the swiftest when another double caused the rider to 
pull up with such force that his stirrup leather broke, and the space be- 
tween the mayor and the object of his pursuit was widened to a quarter 
of a mile, and the chase ended ; our friend dismounting to refit. We had 
not the good fortune to start another of these hares that day. 
Some time afterwards while at Oastroville, a little place of about a 
dozen huts and one house, this Hare was procured by a party of Indians 
and brought to J. W. Audubon, who writes : “ I chanced to be visited by 
some of the Shawnee Indians who were in the neighbourhood on a hunt- 
ing expedition. They were highly astonished and pleased with my draw- 
ings, which I exhibited to them while trying to explain what animals 1 
wanted. I made a hasty sketch of a hare with immensely long ears, at 
which I pointed with an approving nod of the head, and then made anoth- 
er sketch smaller and with shorter ears, at which last I shook my head 
and made wry faces ; the Indians laughed, and by their gutteral eugh, haugh, 
li, gave me to understand that they comprehended me ; and in a day or 
two, I had a beautiful specimen of the Black-tailed Hare brought to me, 
but with the head shot off by a rifle ball. The Indians were quite dis- 
appointed that it did not answer my purpose, and smoothed down the fur 
on the body, which is the only part of the skin they generally preserve, and 
wdiat they thought I wanted. 
The specimen I drew from was shot by Powel, one of Colonel Hays’ 
rangers, from whom I received many attentions and who acted most 
kindly while with me on one of my excursions from San Antonio. This 
Hare is so rare in those parts of Texas that I visited, that I can say little 
of its habits. It appears to be solitary, or nearly so, fond of high open 
prairie with clumps of trees, or rather bushes and thickets about them, 
trusting to its speed for safety and only taking cover from hawks and 
eagles. Near San Petruchio, as I was informed, this Hare is more abun- 
dant than in this vicinity, and two or three of them can occasionally be 
started in a morning’s ride.” 
The specimen from which Mr. Bennett described and named this Hare 
{Lepus nigricaudatus, Bennett, Zoological Proceedings, 1833, p. 41), has a 
more definitely mar’ked line of white along the sides and legs than the one 
1 drew from ; but this species varies so much in its markings, that one figure 
with the characters given is probably as like the majority as another. 
The line of white and black near the tip of the ears extended longitu- 
dinally, is by many considered a good specific character, but it does not, 
I think, hold out in respect to this animal. 
