1879 .] 
AMERICAN AG-RICTJLTTJRIST. 
4r99 
The Jack-Ass, or Mule Rabbit, 
The traveller across the broad and arid plains of 
Western Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona, is very 
sure to become acquainted with two animals—the 
Coyote or Prairie Wolf, and the Jack-ass Rabbit. 
These mammals are almost certainly met with 
every day, regardless of the distance from water 
and the scarcity of vegetation. Like all others of 
our so-called Rabbits, this one is a Hare, and like 
other hares makes no burrow. It is one of the 
largest hares, measuring about two feet from nose 
to tail. Its ears are noticably long, a peculiarity 
When the animal has no other food, and is obliged 
to browse upon this, its flesh is hardly edible. 
Though it brings forth but two or three young at a 
time, it is quite abundant; it can easily escape its 
chief enemy, the Prairie Wolf, by its ileetness, and 
it avoids the large hawks, which sometimes pursue 
it, by crouching behind a prickly Cactus. When 
alarmed, it starts up with enormous leaps, and goes 
off with most astouishing bounds, its long, elevated 
ears giving the animal the appearance of being 
much greater than its real size, and fully sustaining 
the aptness of its common names. A story is told in 
Texas of a newly-arrived Irish immigrant, who was 
it for a mule which had escaped from his “ egg.” 
While most wild animals disappear as a country be¬ 
comes settled, hares and a few others do not, but 
remain apparently to avail themselves of the more 
abundant food which cultivated fields afford, and 
even increase, often becoming a pest to the farmer. 
In some localities, the Jack-ass Rabbit is very de¬ 
structive to farm crops, and we have had several 
inquiries as to the methods of trapping or otherwise 
disposing of them. Our own experience being con¬ 
fined to shooting them, we some time ago asked in 
a “Basket Item,” for other means of destroying 
them. This brought out an interesting letter from 
THE JACK-ASS, OR MULE RABBIT .—(Lepus cullotis.) 
which has caused the common names given above 
to be applied to it, they are about one-third longer 
than the uead, and correspondingly broad, the long 
hairs which fringe them on their outer margin 
making them appear much larger than they really 
are. The general color of the animal is a yellowish 
gray, blotched, and lined with black , the nape is 
unusually black , all the under parts are whitish, 
the tail, less than two inches long, is black above 
and whitish beneath The legs are very long and 
powerful, and it is upon the long leaps which these 
enable it to make, that the animal depends for its 
safety. This hare extends from Western Texas 
and Northern Mexico northward, probably to Ore¬ 
gon, but has not yet been found in California. The 
scientific name for the animal is Lepus callotis. The 
flesh of this hare is dry and hard, but palatable, ex 
cept when it is shot in those arid localities where 
there is little other vegetation than the “ Creasote 
Bush ” (Larrea Mexicana) This shrub has a most 
repulsive odor when handled, and when burned fills 
the air with a stench that is almost intolerable. 
making his way through the settled portions to 
some locality further West. Seeing a field from 
which the corn had been harvested, and from which 
the farmer was gathering a fruit he had never seen 
—the pumpkin, the immigrant asked : “And what’s 
thim you have there, now ?”—The farmer, thinking 
he was being quizzed, answered in a similar man 
ner: “ Them’s mule’s eggs.”—“ An’ how much are 
they?” asked Pat.—“Only two dollars,” replied 
the fanner. Pat bought an “egg,” paid his mon 
ey, and taking his treasure in front of him on his 
saddle, started off his pony on a gallop to over 
take his party. Pat’s Mexican pony, after its kind, 
made a sudden start, and down went the pumpkin. 
The pony was alarmed by the sudden leaping up of 
a Jack-ass Rabbit, as it went lopeing over the prairie, 
clearing the bushes in its bounds, and waving its 
long ears as if in derision. Pat started at full ran, 
shouting: “Stop that mule! stop my mule.” 
Those who remember the impression of great size 
made by this animal as he leaps from you, will not 
think Pat so far out of the way when he mistook 
Mr. W. C. Sehenck, Owyhee Co., Idaho, in which 
Territory they are so abundant, as to be exceedingly 
destructive to the grain, and other crops. The 
method with the Idaho farmers is, to build around 
the field a rabbit-proof fence, about two feet high. 
The material for the fence is generally “Sage-brush,” 
so abundant throughout the far west. At intervals 
of about a rod, a hole is left in the bottom of the 
fence, just large enough to allow a rabbit to pass 
through. Just inside of the fence, and opposite each 
opening, a pit three or four feet deep is dug ; this 
pit is covered by a trap-door nicely balanced, so 
that when a rabbit passes the center, it tips and 
lets the animal drop into the pit, from which it 
cannot escape, but must wait until disposed of. 
Mr. S. states that a farmer of his acquaintance 
caught, in this manner, as many as 400 rabbits in 
a single day, thus not only saving his crop, but 
he received two cents for each pair of ears, the 
bounty paid by the county in which he lives. 
If all the farmers could do as well as this, the 
Jack-ass Rabbit would become scarce. 
