Cottontail describes the characteristic appearance of the rabbit's tail, for when it is raised, the white undersurface is conspicuous and resembles a fluff of cotton. Distribution and abundance. In most years, cottontails are common in all counties of Missouri, but their numbers vary greatly due to differences in the amounts and kinds of cover where they live. Prior to 1955, the cottontail population was extremely high in Missouri, but since that time, intensive and extensive land uses have accelerated, resulting in a greater loss of cottontail habitat and a downward trend in the population. Habitat and home.
Cottontails prefer an open brushy or forest-border type of cover.
While they may venture into the open, they usually do not go far from the sanctuary of some good cover such as brushy and weedy fence rows, hedge fences, thickets, dense high grass or brush piles. During most of the year, the cottontail's home is a resting place or form concealed in a dense clump of grass, under a brush pile or in a thicket. For her young, the female digs a nest cavity in the ground which she lines and covers with grass and fur plucked from her belly. The nest is commonly placed in a well-drained spot. Cottontails often move along regular paths, wearing trails or runways in the vegetation, snow or under brush piles.