In the drawings accompanying Mr. Nelson’s article I usually give the
track of a normal adult animal in about one inch of snow, that being
ideal for tracking. Some of the smaller kinds are shown in fine dust.
The trail goes up or across the page at the ordinary gait of the
animal. The scale is indicated, but when possible the topmost set is
given of life size. While there are endless variants in each kind, I
aim to give the reader at least one typical set of each.
In all animals which bound, the hind feet track ahead of the front
ones. This is very plainly seen in the rabbits. There are two
arrangements of the fore feet when bounding: That of the rabbit (_b_),
in which the fore feet are usually one behind the other, and that of
the tree-squirrel (_a_), in which the fore feet are side by side. The
latter arrangement is associated with power to climb a tree. The former
means that the animal is purely terrestrial. These, however, are true
only as generalizations. There are exceptions in all species. The
ground-squirrels conform to the rabbit type. The tracks are, of course,
ideal, giving far more detail than is usually to be seen.]
=THE ANTELOPE JACK RABBIT= (=Lepus alleni= and its relatives)
(_For illustration, see page 506_)
The antelope, or Allen, jack rabbit is one of the most picturesque of
American mammals. It is larger than the common western jack rabbit and
is strongly characterized by enormous ears, long, slender legs, short
tail, and contrasting colors. It is a member of the white-sided group
of jack rabbits, which are distinguished by the extension of the white
of the underparts well up on the sides of the body.
This group is represented in limited areas on our southern border
by two species. One of these, the Gailliard jack rabbit (_Lepus
gailliardi_), occurs on the grassy plains of extreme southwestern New
Mexico and is succeeded by other white-sided species southward across
the Mexican tableland and through interior Oaxaca to the Pacific coast,
on the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. The other species, the antelope jack
rabbit, occupies a considerable area in southwestern Arizona, and with
its geographic races ranges southward through the coastal plains of
Sonora and Sinaloa to northern Tepic.
All jack rabbits are more or less closely related to the Old World
hares, the term “rabbit” having been so generally misapplied to them
by the early settlers in the western United States that the name is
now fixed by current usage. In Mexico and among the Mexicans of our
southwestern border the proper distinction is made and the jack rabbit
is termed _liebre_, or hare, and cottontail is called _conejo_, or
rabbit.
The white-sided species are more widely differentiated from their Old
World relatives than the other jack rabbits and are the southernmost
representatives of the true hares in America, reaching their limit in
the tropics a little beyond the Isthmus of Tehuantepec.
The extension of the white on the sides of these species assists
in producing one of the most extraordinary examples of directive
coloration known among mammals. I had the pleasure of discovering this
one day in May, 1895, when hunting on horseback over the grassy plain
bordering the Pacific coast of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. As I rode
slowly along, a big jack rabbit hopped deliberately from its form in
the grass a few yards away, and by the contraction of a special set
of muscles along the back drew the dark-colored dorsal area forward
and together so that it formed only a narrow band on the middle of the
back, with a corresponding extension of the white area on the rump and
sides until, as the animal moved diagonally away, it looked almost
entirely white.
At a distance of fifty or sixty yards it came to a stop, and expanded
and contracted the dark dorsal area, thus producing a “flashing” effect
with the changing area of white on the sides and rump. This solved
the riddle of the mirror-like white flashes I had often seen as jack
rabbits on the tableland had dashed away in the brilliant sunshine.
The same habit of “flashing” the white was afterwards observed in
the species of southwestern New Mexico and southwestern Arizona,
demonstrating the appropriateness of the name, “antelope jack rabbit,”
given them by the ranchmen.
Formerly the antelope jack rabbit of Arizona was common on the plains
about Tucson, where many were shot for rifle practice. They are now
comparatively scarce in that district, and are never so excessively
abundant as the common species of the West now and then becomes. They
have an extraordinary appearance as, with their great ears erect, they
stand poised on their long, thin legs. When alarmed, they leap away
with amazing celerity in long, high bounds. They are usually much more
shy and alert than the common jack rabbits and at times are far more
difficult to stalk than antelope. A peculiarly appropriate setting to
this remarkable species is found in the strange and wonderful growth of
giant cactuses, yuccas, creosote bushes, fouquerias, palo verde, and
other desert vegetation of the plains in Arizona and Sonora.
Like other hares, the antelope jack rabbits occupy forms under bushes
or in the shelter of little patches of coarse vegetation. The only
exception to this rule I have seen was west of the city of Guadalajara,
on the Mexican tableland. There one summer day, in the midst of a
lovely open valley covered with short, velvety green grass and dotted
with scattered acacia bushes, a caracara eagle suddenly swooped down
upon a young white-sided jack rabbit. In mortal terror the little beast
dashed away at great speed, the caracara casting at it repeatedly from
a height of fifteen or twenty feet and each time striking the ground
just behind. The young animal ran not less than five hundred yards,
straight for a little bush on a small bank, where it vanished as by
magic.
The caracara was close behind and, alighting, ran round and round the
trunk of the bush, craning its neck and apparently as surprised as
myself at this sudden disappearance. Riding over to investigate, I
found, partly concealed by coarse grass, the entrance of a burrow large
enough to admit an adult jack rabbit. It extended almost horizontally
into the bank for about eighteen inches, and then, turning abruptly to
the left, ended in a rounded chamber some fifteen inches in diameter,
in which the young jack rabbit lay snugly ensconced. It appeared
altogether probable that this burrow had been made by the old jack
rabbit as a shelter for her young, one of which in its extreme need had
again sought asylum there.
White-sided jack rabbits are frequently found in pairs, occupying
forms in close proximity to one another. More rarely several may be
found in a small area. When driven from the forms, they often run in a
wide circle, and in the course of half an hour or more may be detected
returning slyly and watchfully from a direction nearly opposite to that
in which they departed.