Largest rabbit 
Antelope 
Jack-rabbit 
of 
Arizona 
of the 
United States 
is rarely seen , 
tho common 
along 
S portsmen who travel the 
long- trails to California by 
automobile meet the ubiqui¬ 
tous jack-rabbit in the Great 
Plains west of the Mississippi 
and find him again in every open 
plain to the Pacific Coast. Few how- 
evei > realize that down in the desert 
country of Arizona, along the 
Borderland Route, can be found 
the antelope jack-rabbit. He is 
the giant among “jacks,” and an 
animal with characteristics and 
habits that are most interesting 
to the observant traveler. 
Southern Arizona is ordinarily 
considered a desert, but in spite of 
low rainfall, it has many strange 
trees and fantastic cacti that give 
to the lower and warmer valleys 
a strange and deceptive green¬ 
ness. The higher valleys are 
grassy or covered with small 
shrubs. At intervals the steep¬ 
sided mountains rise out of the 
valleys—the lower ones as ragged 
rocky masses, the higher ranges 
dark with their covering of live 
oak and pine. 
In the wide plains of the val¬ 
leys lives the antelope jack-rabbit, 
called by the scientists Lepus 
alleni to distinguish him from 
common jack-rabbits of which 
there are several varieties 
grouped under the name Lepus 
californicus. The antelope jack- 
rabbit is taller, more slender and 
wilder than the ordinary jack- 
rabbit. The body is gray, and the 
ears, very large and rounded at 
the top, are bright shell pink with 
a fringe of white hairs. Even 
x iowu u y jy irK jsrycin 
SEATED 
Note the large, almost hairless, ears with a full 
ot white hair, long hind legs and lack of white 
patch on the back and rump. 
distinguished by his running gait which 
is a seiies of long, high leaps taken at 
Photo by Kirk Bryan 
IN FULL FLIGHT * 
Th |Jnder t Lri Sn * 1 ' S ? ying - Tbe white skin of the 
nder parts is pulled up from the left side. 
at a 
distance the antelope jack-rabbit can be 
Page 561 
a rate that makes the ordinary jack- 
rabbit seem slow. Moreover, there is 
a peculiar sinuous movement oi 
the rump and body that is char¬ 
acteristic. This movement is re¬ 
lated to an unusual habit. The 
white parts of the belly and side 
are pulled up on the rump, first on 
one side and then on the other, and thus 
there is a white patch on the rump while 
the animal is running that disap¬ 
pears when motion ceases. In 
flight the white patch is usually 
drawn up from the side nearest 
the observer, and with a slight 
change in direction, the patch may 
be drawn up from the other side 
so as to keep the white patch con¬ 
tinuously visible. The animals are 
usually seen in pairs and -occa¬ 
sionally even several pairs to¬ 
gether. The antelope jack is not 
so stupidly curious as the ordi- 
nary jack-rabbit, and although 
interested in travelers, usually 
watches them from a distance of 
50 to 100 yards. On the slightest 
alarm he takes flight, often run¬ 
ning some distance, nor will he 
stop for a whistle or cry, as the 
jack-rabbit does. 
Shy as the antelope jack ordi¬ 
narily is, one windy morning in 
March, I found two in a little 
swale so busy love making or too 
fearful of the wind to want to 
move. “Tying my horse to his 
reins,” I approached one of them 
on foot and took the accompany¬ 
ing photograph of the jack sitting 
gravely under a bush. The large 
ears with their fringe of white 
hairs show plainly, but the 
sitting position largely conceals the 
(Continued on page 593) 
By KIRK BRYAN 
desert roads 
