Other species replace the desert cottontails at higher elevations. The adult desert cottontail is light colored, tan to gray, with a yellowish tinge. The underside of the body is whitish. It often has an orange-brown throat patch. The tail is rounded and looks like a cottonball, but is darker above, white below.
Females are larger than the males.
Hind feet are large and average three inches long. The desert cottontail is born in a nest lined with grass and with fur which the mother pulls from her belly. The nest is located in a depression, abandoned badger or prairie dog burrow, or beneath a shrub. She may bear twenty to thirty young in four to five litters. The mother returns to the den site to feed her young.