This is the most northern species of the group of hares (_Lepus
campestris_), familiarly known in the United States as jack rabbits
because of their large size and enormous ears. They are lively animals
of astounding jumping powers. In America there is no such distinction
between the term "hare" and "rabbit" as there is in Europe, where the
large, long-eared, stout varieties, living in shallow "forms," are
named hares, and the smaller and more slender kind, which digs a deep
burrow, is the "rabbit." In this country the authorities say that no
well-defined distinction exists. Of the so-called jack rabbits the
northern prairie hare here depicted may be taken as the type. It is
one of the largest species of hares, measuring about twenty inches
in length, and it has long, strong, and vigorous limbs, and such
remarkably long ears that the popular name it bears is fully justified.
This northern species is found on the western prairies from British
America to Colorado. It undergoes a winter change of coat, becoming
nearly white, but the blanching is never complete and russet streaks
or patches remain through the winter. The habits of this animal are
those of hares in general, and all the species known as jack rabbits
are famous for their great speed and for the astounding leaps they make
in running. They are the most fleet and agile of American mammals.
They are not much pursued for the reason that they are difficult to
shoot, and their celerity of movement enables them to elude four-footed
foes also. Pending the complete change from the summer brown to the
snowy-white coat of winter, the animal presents a very singular mottled
appearance.
Hares are a very important article of commerce and, during the winter
season, tons of them are daily shipped to the principal markets from
all quarters. They are sold at cheap rates, and are frequently peddled
about the streets by the cartload at surprisingly low figures.
The methods of pursuit and capture of these animals are numerous, but
the most common and successful are trailing in the snow with dogs,
hounding, and coursing. To trail hares in the winter one must have dogs
of keen scent and a light fall of from two to four inches of snow must
have been deposited the night previous to an early morning start. Two
or more hunters equipped with dogs and guns usually start together.
Thickets of elder and blackberry are sought where the game is known to
lie. The hunters skirt the border of a patch of these bushes and the
dogs are sent in. The dogs soon drive the hares from cover when they
become a ready mark for the gunners. Where the ground is rocky they
will try to hide by running into any hole or crevice which may offer
protection. In hounding hares the hunters are stationed at various
points on the paths as the hares, like deer and foxes, follow regular
beaten tracks. The hounds start the game from belts of pine, cedar,
or hemlock. Each hunter waits for the animals to pass his station and
fires at them as they go by at full run. It is considered no mean
accomplishment to secure a hare under these circumstances. Trapping
and snaring are also methods of capturing jack rabbits. They are
principally employed by pot hunters, and many people make it their sole
business during the winter months. Greyhounds are used in coursing
hares, but the jack rabbit frequently discomfits both horse and hound.
Hares do not live in burrows, as is the case with the rabbit, but lie
in a form in bush or thicket, a slight depression in the ground serving
for a nest, or sometimes a hollow stump, or the under side of a ledge
of rock is selected. The young, when born, are covered with hair,
their eyes are open, and they are able almost immediately to support
themselves. The rabbit, on the other hand, is born with closed eyes,
and requires the constant attention of the mother for some time. The
hares are not so prolific as the rabbits, the female bringing forth but
from three to five young at a litter, the rabbits bearing from five to
eight.
Hares generally feed at night, lying in their forms in some bush or
copse during the greater part of the day; rabbits, on the contrary,
generally remain in the warmest corner of the burrow during the dark
hours. The food of the hare consists of all kinds of vegetables similar
in nature to cabbage and turnips, which are favorite dainties with it;
it is also especially fond of lettuce and parsley.
The great speed of the hare in running is chiefly due to the fact that
the hind legs are longer than the fore. This is also the reason why it
can run better up hill than down. Generally it utters a sound only when
it sees itself in danger. This cry resembles that of a little child,
being a shrill scream or squeak.
Among the perceptive senses of the hare, hearing is best developed;
the smell is fairly keen, but sight is rather deficient. Prudence
and vigilance are its most prominent characteristics. The slightest
noise--the wind rustling in the leaves, a falling leaf--suffices
to excite its attention and awaken it from sleep. Dietrich Aus Dem
Winckell says that the greatest vice of the hare is its malice, not
because it expresses it in biting and scratching, but because it often
proves its disposition in the most revolting manner, the female by
denying her maternal love, and the male by his cruelty to the little
leverets.
It is said that captive hares are easily tamed, become readily used
to all kinds of nourishment usually fed to rabbits, but are very
delicate and apt to die. If they are fed only on hay, bread, oats, and
water, and never anything green, they live longer. A tame hare, in the
possession of Mr. Fuchs in Wildenberg, which slept and ate with his
dogs, ate vegetable food only in default of meat--veal, pork, liver,
and sausage causing it to go into such raptures that it would execute a
regular dance to get at these dainties.
Besides the flesh, which as food is justly esteemed, the fur of the
hare is also put to account. The skin is deprived of its hair, tanned
and used in the manufacture of shoes, of one kind of parchment, and of
glue; the hair is used in the manufacture of felt.
Mark Twain, in his "Roughing It," gives this humorous and
characteristic description of the jack rabbit:
"As the sun was going down, we saw the first specimen of an animal
known familiarly over two thousand miles of mountain and desert--from
Kansas clear to the Pacific ocean--as the 'jackass-rabbit.' He is
well named. He is just like any other rabbit, except that he is from
one-third to twice as large, has longer legs in proportion to his
size, and has the most preposterous ears that ever were mounted on any
creature but a jackass. When he is sitting quiet, thinking about his
sins, or is absent-minded, or unapprehensive of danger, his majestic
ears project above him conspicuously; but the breaking of a twig will
scare him nearly to death, and then he tilts his ears back gently,
and starts for home. All you can see then, for the next minute, is
his long form stretched out straight, and 'streaking it' through the
low sage-bushes, head erect, eyes right, and ears just canted to the
rear, but showing you just where the animal is, just the same as if
he carried a jib. When he is frightened clear through, he lays his
long ears down on his back, straightens himself out like a yardstick
every spring he makes, and scatters miles behind him with an easy
indifference that is enchanting. Our party made this specimen 'hump
himself.' I commenced spitting at him with my weapon, and all at the
same instant let go with a rattling crash. He frantically dropped his
ears, set up his tail, and left for San Francisco at lightning speed.
Long after he was out of sight we could hear him whiz."
C. C. M.