The Portland daily press., 1881-12-26
The Jack-Rabbit of Texas.
From the Austin crexasl slftings.l

From the Austin CIexas) Slttlngs.I
The iack-rabbitis is an inhabitant of Texas and
some other western states He is often called
the "mule rabbit" and by the cowboy is
familiarly spoken of as the "muloy." He is not
a rabbit at all. A rabbit is an unobtrusiye lit
tie animal WHO'S found by school boysin hole
in the ground st the end of along track in the
snow The so-called jack rabbit is quite diff
erent kind of soup-meat. He Is identical with
the British hare, except that he is larger; his
color lighter, and his ears much longer His
avoirdupois is about twelve pounds, and his
ears measure, from tip to tip, about 10 inches.
He does not burrow in the ground. He lies
under cover of bunch of prairie. grass, but is
seldom found at home, his Office hours are FROM
sunrise and sunset, He is to be found during
the day on the open prairie, where he feeds on
the tender shoots of the mesquite or sage
grass. He is not ferocious animal, as q stran-
ger might be led to suppose from an examina-
ton of what purports to be his picture, under
the alias of ''the Texan hare" in Gov. Roberts
book. The Jack-rabbit has several enemies,
among them the COW boy, who shoots him with
his,rife, the coyote and the dog, that try to
run him down, and the governor Of Texas
above alluded to, who libels him In his book.
He has two ways Of protecting himself against
his enemies One way is to squat himself when
he suspects danger, and folds his ears along his
sides BY doing this he often escapes observa-
tion as only his back is exposed, the color OF
which harmonizes with the brown OF the with
cred grass The other plan, that he uses when
discovered and pursued, is to create remoteness
between himself and bis pursuer. Ia giving his
whole attention to this matter, when necessary
he is stupendous success, and earnest 70
fault When disturbed he unlimbers bis long
legs unfurls his ears, and goes OIL with bound
He generally stops after running ABOUT lVV
yards and looks back to see II his pursurer ls
enioying the chase as much as he thought he
should, and then he leaves for parts unknown.
There are many fast things, from an ice boat to
a note maturing in the bank, bat nothing to
equal the jack-rabbit. An unfounded rumor
gets around pretty lively, but could not keep
up with him two blocks. When an ordinary
cur dog tries to expeditea jack rabbit route he
makes humiliating failure OF it.
He only gives the rabbit gentle exercise. Inc
latter merely throws up his ears, and, under
easy SAIL skins leisurely along, taeklng occa-
sionally to give the funeral proce sslSn time 70
catch up But ii you want TO see velocity, ur-
gent speed, and precipitated haste, You have
only to turn loose greyhound in the wake OF a
jack-rabbit. Pursued by greyhound ne VIII
''let himself out" in q manner that would as
tonish prepaid half-rate message. III he 10 q
rabbit that has never had any experience with
a greyhound before, he will start oil at an easy
pace, but as he turns to wink derisively at
what he supposes to be an ordinary yellow dog,
he realizes that there is force in nature hith-
erto unknown to him, and his look Of aStonish-
ment, alarm and distrust, as he furls his ears
and promptly declines the nomination, is anus
ing. Under such circumstances he goes too fast
for the eye to follow his movements, and pre-
sents the optical illusion of streak OF jack-rab-
bit mile and half long