Helena weekly herald. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1867-1900, 1882-01-26
THE JACk.RABBIT
An Animal That Can Give Points in
Speed to n Greyhound.
Texas Siftings

The jack-rabbit is an inhabitant Of Texas
and of some other Western States. He is
often called the "mule-eared rabbit" and by
the cowboy is tamiliarly spoken OF as the
"muley" He is not rabbit at all. \ rab-
bit is an unobtrusive little animal, who is
found by school boys in a hole il the ground
at the end ol a long track in the snow. The
so-called jack rabbit is quite different 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 tim to tip, about sixteen
inches He does not burrow in the ground
He lies under cover Of bunch OF prairie,
but is very seldom found at home, his office
hours being between sunset and sunrise. 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 a
ferOciOuS ANIMAL as stranger might be led
to suppose from an examination of what pur-
ports to be his picture under the alias OF
'The Texan Hare" in. Governor Roberts
book.
The iack-rabbit has several enemies
among them the cowboy, who shoots him
with his rifle the cayOte 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 when he suspects danger and fold his
ears along his sides. By doing this he often
escapes observation, as only his back is eX-
posed the color of which ilarmonizes with
the withered grass. The other plan, that
he uses when discovered and pursued, is to
create remoteness between himself and his
pursuer In giving his whole attention to
this matter, when necessary, he is stupen-
duous success and earnest to fault. When
disturbed he unlimbers his long legs, unturls
his ears and goes off with a bound. HIS gen
orally stops after running about a hundred
yards and looks back to see if his pnrsuer is
enjoying the chase as much as he thought
he would aud then he leaves for parts un-
known.
There are many fast things, from an ice
boat to note maturing in the bank, but
nothing to equal the iack-rabbit. An un-
founded rumor gets around pretty lively, but
it could not keep up with him for two blocks
When an ordinary cur dog tries to expedite
a Jack rabbit route he makes a humiliating
failure of it. lie only gives the rabbit gen
tie exercise The latter merely throws up
its ears, and, under easy sail, skins leisurely
along, tacking occasionally to give the
funeral procession time to catch up. But if
you want to see velocity urgent speed and
precipitate haste, you have OILY to turn loose
greyhound III the wake .at-a- iack=labbit.
Pursued by greyhound he will let himself
out" in manner that would astonish pre-
paid halt-rate message. If he is a rabbit
that never had any experience with grey
hound before, he will start off 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
hitherto unknown to him, and his look of
astonishment, alarm and disgust, as he folds
his ears and promptly declines the nomina-
ton, is amusing Under such circumstances
he goes too fast for the eye to follow his move
ments, and presents the optical illusion of
streak of jack rabbit a mile and half long.