OCR Text |
Show By Ted Kestme The Jack rabbit is a wonderful wonder-ful animal. There are people who can see wonder only in that which is rare or fantastic. But surely this one, who has every hand against him must have what it takes to survive not only survive, but abound! If he is a common animal, he possesses possess-es uncommon and uncanny equipment to endure, claims Donald Don-ald Culross Peattie, who is America's Amer-ica's most famous writer of natural na-tural history. So let's examines this unusual unus-ual equipment. First there is the Jack's Jumping power. A black-tailed black-tailed jack was seen by one zoo-ologist zoo-ologist to Jump a 5'a foot "rab-bit "rab-bit proof" fence not driven by fear, but in order to get at crops on the other side. The white-tailed Jack will cover 22 feet and four Inches at a leap. They will bound on for miles, 15 feet at a bound, 200 hops a minute, says one naturalist. I once clocked clock-ed one at 35 miles an hour. And those mulish cars! They are bigger In proportion to his head than a donkey's to its own poll. But he needs every Inch of them. Twisting them this way and that, he uses those ears like so many antennae for collecting out of the air sounds which you and I never hear. Perhaps we should stop and get the jack straight with our zoology. Strictly speaking, he is not a rabbit but a hare. (True rabbits are born blind and naked; nak-ed; the jack comes In a full suit of fur, with ryes wide open.) However, In common parlance he Is a rabbit and the name wounds only the feelings of a purist. The Jack rabbit Is protectively colored, too. In various parts of his vast range, he takes on different dif-ferent hues. But we haven't come to his wonderful equipment: the lability to live without water. In the west, the desert Jack may live a whole rabbit span of ex-istance ex-istance without tasting water. J There is his amazing nib-bling nib-bling capacity. It is no wonder that he is indicted by ranchers and farmers with a long list of charges. Some estimates have put the damage of these hares to range grasses as one third of ,the total pasturage and browse. An acre of alfalfa may be cut down in a few nights, during years of rabbit abundance. Probably no shooting except quail shooting, when the quail "bomb" explodes, requires such quick reaction, such split-second marksmanship, as when old Jack unexpectedly bounds out of a bush, and whirls away with an-telope an-telope speed. And no other shoot-Ing shoot-Ing of any kind of true game animal can be done with such a free conscience. The sport Is great, the flesh Is fair eating, the farmer benefits, and there are always more. |