The cottontail rabbit is a long-eared , small medium sized mammal of the family Leporidae. Its fur is brownish above and whitish underneath.
Female cottontails are slightly heavier than males.
Preferred habitat includes swamps, thickets, briar patches, down-timber, weedy fields, brush piles, overgrown fencer rows and brushy gullies. Feeding areas are rarely very far from good cover. Rabbits rarely dig dens, preferring to occupy abandoned woodchuck burrows. An individual rarely leaves its home territory where it knows food sources, cover, and escape routes thoroughly. Summer foods include leaves, herbs, legumes, fallen fruit, garden vegetables, low broadleaf weeds, and clover and grass.