54 
CALIFORNIAN HARE. 
portion clingy yellowish-white, growing lighter as it approaches the tip, 
until it blends with the black colour which terminates the upper half of the 
outside of the ear ; the interior edge of the ear is pale yellow, each hair 
slightly tipped with black ; one half of the inner surface of the ear is 
nearly naked, but covered with very delicate and short hairs, the other 
portion thinly clothed with hair gradually thickening towards the outer 
edge, where it is grizzly-brown ; edge of the ear for two thirds from the 
head, yellowish-white ; the remainder to the tip, soft velvety black. This 
black colour extends in a large patch on to the outer surface of the ear at 
the tip. 
DIMENSIONS. 
Length from point of nose to root of tail, 
“ “ eye to point of nose, 
Height of ear, posteriorly, 
Heel, to point of middle claw, - 
Tail, including hair, - 
Inches. Lines. 
- 22 
- 2 1 
- 5 10 
4 8 
- 3 3 
HABITS. 
The habits of all hares arc much the same ; and this family is a general 
favourite for the beauty, timid gentleness, and fleetness its various species 
exhibit, although some of them are annoying to the gardener. In America, 
however, many species of Hare inhabit territories too far from cultivated 
fields or gardens for them to be able to nibble even at a cabbage plant. 
Many pleasant evening hours have we passed, walking through forest- 
shaded roads in the last rays scattered here and there by the sinking 
sun, observing the playful “ rabbits” leaping gracefully a few paces at a 
time, then stopping and looking about, ignorant of our proximity and 
unconscious of danger. But we are now to give the habits of the Cali-' 
fornian Hare, for which take the following account of the animal as 
observed by J. W. Audubon : 
“ The Californian Hare appears to possess just brains enough to make 
him the greatest coward of all the tribe I have seen, for, once startled he 
is quite as wild as a deer, and equally heedless as to the course he takes, 
so that as he has not the keen sense of smell of the deer to warn him of 
danger in any direction, he sometimes makes a great fool of himself in his 
haste, and I have had these Hares run to within three feet of me, before I 
was seen, even where there was no cover but a sparse prairie grass.” 
“ It was after toiling night and day through the sands of the Colorado 
