The commonwealth. (Scotland Neck, N.C.) 1882-1884, 1883-08-23
Mr.. J. RABBIT AND HIS. .PECULlARITIEs.

The American jack rabbit is an in.
habitant of Texas and of some other
western States. He is often called
the "mule-eared rabbit" and, by the
cowboy familiarly spoken of as the
''muley." He is not a rabbit at all.
A rabbit is an unobtrusive little an.
imaI, who is found by school boys, in
a hole in the ground, at the end of a
long track in the snow. The social
ed 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 ayirdupois
is about twelve pounds. and his ears
measure from tip TO Zip. about six
teen inches. He does not burrow i.
the ground. He lies under cover of
a bunch of prairie grass. but is very
seldom found at home, his office
hours being between sunset and sun
rise. 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 stranger might
be led to suppose from an examina-
ton Of what purports to be his pic
ture. under the alias Of '''The Texian
Harn.:
T.ie jack rabbit has many enemies,
among them the cowboy. who shoots
him with his rifle, the coyote an1 the
dog, that try to run him down. 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 do.
ing this he often escapes observ alton
as only his back is exposed. the
color of which harmonizes with the
brown of the withered grass. The
other plan. that he uses when discov.
cred and pursued.is to create remote
ness between himself and his pursu-
er. In giving his whole attention to
this matter, when necessary. he is a
stupenious success, and earnest to a
fault. When disturbed. he unlimbers
his long legs. unfurls his ears and
goes off with bound. He generally
stops after running about one hun
dred 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
all ice boat to a note maturing in a
bank. but nothing to equal the jack
rabbit. An unfounded -rumor gets
around pretty lively, but could not
keep up with him for two blocks.
When an ordinary cur dog tries to ex-
pedite jack 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 occa
sionally to give the funeral process
sion time to catch up. But if you
want to see velocity, urgent speed,
and precipitated haste. you have on
lv to turn loose a greyho ind in the
wake of jack rabbit. Pursued by al
greyhound he will ''let himself OUT
in a manner that would astonish al
prepaid half rate message. If he is a
rabbit that has never had any expe-
rience with greyhound before. he
will start off at an easy pace, but as he
turns to wink derlsively 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 turls his ears and
promptly declines the nomination, is
amusing. Under such umstances
he goes too fast for the eye 70 follow
his movement. and presents the opti-
cal illusion of streak Of jack rab-
bit mile and a half long.