Arizona weekly enterprise., 1889-12-14
ABOUT THE JACK RABBIT.
TROUBLES ENCOUNTERED BY PRO-
 MoTERs OF coURsfNG EVENTS.

Futile Attempts to Catch the Speedy Lit
 tie Animal-A Rabbit Farm Established
 to Obviate the DificuIty-A Successful
 Scheme at Last Perfected.
 Jack rabbits may be said to be found now nearly altogether west of the Mis- souri river. They were lately numerous on the town site of Kansas City, but have now grown comparatively scarce there, and also at Omaha, although they are still often seen on the prairies near the latter city. The would be captor of the | jack rabbit, however, will find his ami nal in bewildering plenty on the table lands of certain portions of Colorado, and | in good numbers in the western portions of Kansas and Nebraska, it being native | to almost the whole territory of the latter two states.
 The fact is, it is no easy matter to cap | ture a live jack rabbit Plenty of people | say they can catch them, and think they can catch them, but when it comes right | down to business the results do not war rant the assertion. One vehement Colo | rado citizen who lived in section where the jack rabbits fairly swarmed has re- peatedly declared his ability to capture a thousand jacks in week. He thought he could take number of men and some long nets and make drive which would round up about an acre of writhing and seething jack rabbits at whirl. His project is not new and has been tried. The result usually is that the big hares either get away or get killed. Eastern T ol> ing parks have had outstanding offers of S5 apiece for jack rabbits not any longer than your hand, but they were unable to get any. A few young ones are occa- sionally picked up in nests by boys or by hunters upon the western plains, and once in long while one is caught in a big figure 4" trap or ''fail door, trap, although the latter does not often hap pen, because of the bigness and shyness of this particular kind of rabbit. Neither of these sources of supply, however, is in any way constant, and both are altogether inadequate to the exigencies of regular coursing events. It did not take long, therefore, for the projectors of an in- closed coursing circuit to realize that they must have jack rabbit farm. The only farm of this sort, so far as known, is situated on fiat alkali section near a town in central Kansas. It and its jack rabbits are the property of coursing as- sociation which will not sell 8 rabbit to any one else, and which depends on its farm for the supply of hares taken to other cities in park coursing events.
 At starting the projectors of this novel fo I, oto rfr only labi ifo which had for the most part been pur- chased when young from farmer boys who had found them. In one year, ow- ing to accretions from similar sources, and to the very rapid multiplication of the species, there were between two and three hundred full grown jacks on the farm, and the question of supply may be fairly said to be settled. If measures be not taken to keep down the increase the jacks will before long fill the farm up so | they will have to move the fences.
 But when the rabbit farmers wanted some rabbits for coursing event, they at first found that they had still to catch | their rabbit. The game was on the farm, to be sure, but there was good deal of ! farm to the amount of rabbit; moreover, the latter remained possessed of all his native wildness and speed, and positively declined to be interviewed at short range. In this dilemma. the owners of the farm tried the expedient which the soi disant Colorado rabbit catcher suggested. They took large strip of wire fence netting, through whose meshes the hares could not pass. and by means of large num- .berpf men used this as sort of rabbit seine, They seined aII one afterno noon, in < fle midst of a gentle K Kans8a zephyr, and
 hei tbs shades .of nj gllt Hll fhey Ind |, 4ile k5Qall and absent mind sjael rab- r bis V .ich had forgotten b run asa5 < It was eVi dent that some o5ller plan miist f be tried. There IS regulation coursing track situated in the middleof this farm, the side fences of the course being about half mile long and, say, hundred yards apart. At one end of this are To- cated the escapes for the rabbits, and at the other, which narrows down to a point, are the pens from which they are
 loosed before the dogs.
 It was thought that if the coy crea-
 lures could be gotten inside the coursing track, they could be driven into the pens
 at the other end without trouble. An
 effort was made to drive them into the
 track, but they proved obdurate as ever,
 and only few could be handled in that
 way. The way finally adopted as most
 successful was to set little covered pit
 fall, with a tip up top, on the outer edge
 of the track fence. The hares have a
 habit of ru>ing along fence, and it
 was found they made a sort of path along both sides of the course. In this
 the tip tops were set. A hare steps on
 the lid of the trap, and down he goes.
 He finds he can get out all right on the
 inside of the fence, and so out he climbs.
 When number are found in the inclo-
 sure they are driven into the pens at the
 head of the track. By using a trail oi corn and other food the capture of the hares is expedited.
 A jack rabbit is strong animal, but like most of the Lepus family, he has g soft spot in the back of his head. The adults are naturally very wild, and grow so frantic when handled that some times they strike their heads against something and injure or kill themselves
 The young oiIes, or those brought up iI
 captivity close to human beings, are no,
 so desperate, but there is always to bt
 feared disposition in one of these grea hares either to pull an arm off his capt or or leg off himself. The greates care, therefore, is necessary in caginG l and shipping the rabbits. They are care , fully netted or otherwise taken out o the pens and gently placed in padded 7 crates, so that they may not hurt them . selves. By such measures it has beer Z found that they stand shipment very well, and with almost no loss of Efe.- l E. Hough in St. Louis Globe-Democrat ! Curious HindoO Notions.
 ; A curious light is thrown on the rura