Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1882-01-24
The Jack Rabbit.
Teras Siftinqs.


The jack rabbit is an inhabltant of
Texas and of some other Western States.
He is often called the ''mule-eare rab-
bit, and by the cowboy is Familiarity
spoken of as the ''muleY." He is not
rabbit at ALL A rabbit is an unobtrusive
little animal, who is found by school
boys in hole in the ground, at the end
of 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 the ears measure,
from tip to tip, about sixteen inches.
He does not hurrOw in the ground. He
lies under cover of a bunch of prairie
grass. but is very seldom found at home,
bis 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 ferOciOus ami
NAL, as a stranger might be led to sup
pose from an examination of what pur-
ports to be his picture. under the alias
of The Texan Hare" in Gov. Roberts
book.
The jack rabbit has several enemies,
among them the cowboy, wac shoots
him with his rifle, the coyote and the
dog, tina try to run him down, aud 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 exposed,
he color of which harmonizes with the
brown of the withcTed grass. The other
plan that he uses when discovered and
pursued, is to create remOteness between
himself and the pursuer. In giving his
whole attention to this matter, when it
is necessary, he is stupendOus sue
cess. and earnest to fault. When
disturbed he unlimhers his long legs,
uniurls his ears, and goes off with
hound. He generally stops after running
about hundred yards, and looks back
to see if his pursuer is enjoying the chase
as much as he thought he would, and
then he leaves for parts unknown. There
are many fast things, from an ice boat
to note maturing in bank, but nothing
to equal he Jack rabbit. An unf0unded
AhAAlPA SCto hACNAAh pASttJ AAFOiJ5 buI
could not keep up with him for two
blocks. When an ordinary cur dog tries
to expedite j4ck rabbit route, he makes
humiliating failure of it. He only
gives the rabbit gentle exercise. The
latter merely throws up his 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 only to turn
loose a greyhound IN the wake of a jack
rabbit. Pursued by greyhound, he will
let himself out" in a manner that would
astonish prepaid half-rate message. If
he is rabbit that never had any expert
ence with a greyhound 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 aston
ishment alarm and disgust, as he furls
his ears and promptly declines the nOmi-
nation, is amusing. Under such circum-
stances. he goes too fast for the eye to
follow his movements, and presents the
optical illusion of a streak of jack rab-
bit mile and & half long