CALIFORNIAN HARE. 
55 
desert, and resting afterwards at Yallecito and San Felipe, while marching 
along the streams through the rich fields of Santa Maria, that I saw the 
first Californian Hare. I knew him at sight : he showed no white tail as 
he ran, and looked almost black amongst the yellow broom-sedge as he 
divided it in his swift course. His legs seemed always under his body, for 
so quick was the movement that I could not see them extended, as in other 
Hares, from one bound to another ; he seemed to alight on his feet perpen- 
dicularly at each leap, with a low-squatting springy touch to the earth, 
and putting his enormously long ears forward, and then back on his neck, 
and stretching out his head, appeared to fly over the undulating ridges of 
the prairie as a swallow skims for insects the surface of a sluggish river in 
summer.” 
Very few of these Hares were seen by J. W. Audubon’s party until 
they had travelled some distance further north, and it was only after they 
had left the plains of the San Joaquin for the mines that they became 
a common animal, and in fact often their sole resource for the day’s 
meat. 
J. W. Audubon says that a single Hare of this species, with a little fat 
pork to fry it with, often lasted himself and a companion, as food when 
travelling, for two days. Nearly every miner has eaten of this fine Hare, 
which is well known in all the hilly portions of Upper California. 
The Californian Hare brings forth about five young at a time, which 
are generally littered in the latter part of April or beginning of May. 
J. W. Audubon says : “ I shot a female only a few days before her young 
would have been born : she had five beautiful little ones, the hair and feet 
perfect, and a white spot on the forehead of each was prominent. I never 
shot another afterwards, and was sad at the havoc I had committed.” 
We do not know whether this species breeds more than once in the year 
or not, but it probably does, as Mr. Peale says : “ A female killed on the 
twenty-fourth of September was still suckling her young.” 
The Californian Hare is more frequently met with in uplands, on moun- 
tain sides, and in bushy places, than in other situations. During the rainy 
season it was not seen by J. W. Audubon in low and wet grounds, 
although it doubtless resorts to them during the dry weather of summer. 
Mr. Peale says, these Hares “ when running, carry the ears erect, and 
make three short and one long leap ; and that the Indians catch them by 
setting hedges of thorny brush, with openings at intervals, in which they 
set snares, so constructed as to catch the Hares when passing, without the 
use of springes ; the noose is made of a substance like hemp, very strong 
and neatly twisted with cords.” 
