Index for Cottontails 
143 
(JP < 0.05). Examination of residuals revealed apparently randomly 
distributed error. 
RESULTS 
Total masses ranged from 1,022 to 1,364 g and averaged 1,176 
g (SE = 33). Total lengths ranged from 29.2 to 45.7 cm and aver- 
aged 33.9 cm (SE = 1.7). Head length ranged from 7.20 to 9.70 
cm and averaged 8.49 cm (SE = 0.20). Crude fat ranged from 3.7 
to 12.6% and averaged 7.2% (SE = 0.8) of tissue dry mass. Coef- 
ficients of variation of fat content among triplicate samples from 
each animal were all less than 5%. Females generally had higher 
(but not significantly higher) fat content than did males. 
Crude fat content was significantly correlated to total mass (P 
= 0.04) and to head length (P = 0.09), but not to total length 
measurements (P = 0.9). The best predictive equation (Fig. 1) was 
log crude fat ) = 2.78957 x Iog e / (Mass(gm) \ - 11.85897 
\ Head Length(cm) / 
This equation was highly significant (P = 0.007) and had an 
r 2 of 0.697. 
3.0 
| 2.5 
c 
o 
o 
0) 
■o 
2.0 
<D 
o 1'5 
r 2 =0.697 
A Male 
■ Female 
1.0 
I i I l I | | 1 — I — 1 — I — I — I — I — I — I — I 1 — I — I — I — I — I — I — I — I — I — L. 
4.7 
4.8 
4.9 
5.0 
5.1 
5.2 
Log e (mass/head length) 
Fig. 1. Regression of crude fat content and mass/head-length of collected 
cottontails. 
