Year: 1879

Out In Kansas we have rare sport
hunting jack-rabbits. Eastern boys


can hardly guess how much sport there


is in it. We have other game, of course.
Deer and antelopes are quite common


in Edwards and other southwestern
counties; and the wolves that prowl
| over the prairies are worse for our
sheep and calves than bears are, or


ever were, in New England.


But the greatest sport of all is hunt


ing jack-rabbits. We hunt them ON


horseback, with greyhounds. All the


settlers in our section keep one or more
greyhounds on purpose to hunt jack
rabbits. 1 went fox-hunting twice,


with hounds, in Maine, and did not


have half the fun that have had out


here, in Kansas, hunting ''jacks.''


Our jack-rabbit, should say, is no
such little scrub as the Massachusetts


rabbit, or even the Maine hare. Jack
is quite beast, and makes roast or


stewed, pretty good dish. Many a


settlers family lived on jacks, after the


grasshoppers came. Our rabbit has


black legs and black ears, and a black
ish head. When he stands up on his


nearly three feet tall. His tail is long,


and that is black, too. But the body
is a brownish gray. 1 have seen jacks


almost as large as small goat. Now
and then one comes across a tremen-


dously large one,-so big and tall and


long cared, and so awfully clumsy
looking, as fairly to make fellow stare,
even when he is used to jacks. Gener-
ally, however, they do not weigh more
than fifteen or twenty pounds.


So vsorhf


the open prairie and along the shallow


river-valleys, where there is not bush.


nor tree, anywhere in sight. Most of


the grass, except by the streams, is


buffalo grass short, curly, fine


grass; but scattered about are seen


punches, or rings, of taller grass, two


and half or three feet high. These


rings of high grass are commonly not


larger across than bushel-basket, but


quite thick. And right inside of the


grass rings is where the jacks hide.


They hide in there, curled up, cuddled


warm out of the prairie wind, and well


out of sight, too. You scarcely ever


see jack stirring on the prairie in


the daytime, even in places where they


are really very numerous. Those grass


bunches are so thick that you may pass
close to one and not see the jack cud-
died up in the middle of it; and if he
sees you he will not stir, unless you
kick or strike into the grass. Then cut
he goes, ten feet at one jump; and clum-
sy as he looks there is nothing that runs
which can catch him, if he gets twenty
yards start-nOt even a greyhound.


Away he flies like an old felt hat flop
ping along the ground before the wind;
and you think that the hound will catch
him in no time; but he doesn't. Jack
keeps just about two jumps ahead, and
will run one mile, or two, or all day,
Just as you like. There is no such thing
as tirine one down, when once he has
had good fair start, and has had
chance to get his eyes fairly open and
catch his wind. The only way we ever
catch jack-rabbits with hounds is to
take them by surprise, before they have
time to lay themselves out for good
steady leaping.


1 have often laughed to see wolf
hunt jack-rabbits. The wolf will sneak
along, crouched close to the ground,
and work up to a ring of grass, then
give a sudden jump right into the
midst of it. About one time in fifty he
will manage to seize the sleeping jack.
But commonly the rabbit will. in
some mysterious way, leap out from
under the VOLTS very nose, and
go twenty or thirty feet, as if
propelled by a single kick, then
stop and look. The wolf knows that
the game is up. 1 once saw wolf sit
down and look hard at the rabbit, and
sniff him longingly; and the jack, not
yet half awake, sat and winked. But
the wolf turned away and went to an
other bunch of grass. He knew better
than to waste his strength chasing a
jack-rabbit.


The way we used to hunt jacks was
to start out-eight or ten of us-on our
ponies (and there are no horses in this
country fleeter than some of those Texas
ponies), with all the greyhounds we
could muster-sometimeS fifteen or
twenty of them. Riding out on the
prairie, we would Eow string out in a
line, with the dogs all running close be-
side the ponies, and 60 at a gallOp for
those rings of tall grass. Just as some
pony's feet were going into bunch of
tall grass, out would leap rabbit
The greyhounds would be at close
hauls, not two yards from the rabbit
tail; and everybody knows how grey
hound will buckle down to the ground
and run, without so much as yip.


The jack, walked up SO suddenly,
would not have time to straighten out
for long leaps, and would tack, first
right then left. In that way he would
dodge one hound, but in lodging one
another would grab him. That was
the way we used to hunt them. Some
times we would by this plan catch
eighteen or twenty in an hour. o, it
was live SPORT Such shouting and