Hare Research Articles

Speed of the Varying Hare

Speed of the Varying Hare

‘Kill Statistics’ from California

GAME birds and animals form a valuable food resource of any country, but the permanent value of the resource depends upon the skill with which it is at once utilized and husbanded. In California the control of game is supervised by the Division of Fish and Game, and in order that effective regulations may be made it is essential that the Division should know how many individuals of each species are killed in the various parts of the State. In one area a species may be abundant in spite of the sportsman, in another it may require further protection. The method of collecting the information upon which legislation depends is by questionnaire, attached to hunting licence application forms, and the experts are convinced that the returns give a reasonably accurate tale of the slaughter. The statistics for 1938 have been published by J. I. Hunter and Donald H. Fry, jun. and reveal some astonishing numbers (California Fish and Game, 26, 310; 1940). The estimated number of ducks killed was 950,000; geese, 90,000; pigeons (Columba), 95,000; doves (mainly Zenaidura), 1,700,000; quail, 1,500,000; pheasants, 125,000. The mammal numbers are also very considerable: cottontail and brush rabbits, 500,000; jack rabbits, 750,000; deer (two species), 35,045. In 1939, 43,251 deer were killed, a number strongly in contrast with the moderate slaughter of twenty-five years ago, when the, estimate of killed reached only 12,000.

Some Coactions of Rabbits and Rodents with Cactus

RELATED STUDIES Taylor and Vorhies (10) reported extensive eating of cactus pads and stems by jack rabbits in Arizona. The eating of the prickly pear fruit by animals has been reported from various sources. Phillips (4) observed in South Africa that cattle, goats, baboons, monkeys and birds eat the prickly pear fruits and disseminate the seed. Darnell-Smith (3) reported that the Emu, black magpie, rabbits and cattle ate the prickly pears. The rabbits appeared to have ground most of the seed during mastication but the others were credited with scattering the seed. Timmons and Wenger (9) reported the jack rabbits eating prickly pear cactus fruits in West Central Kansas and disseminating the seed in their fecal pellets. Clements and Shelford (1) reported the golden flicker and Indian road runner as including cactus fruits in their diets. Cook (2) reported rabbits and rodents as being among the chief disseminators of prickly pear seed in the Central Great Plains.

CANCERS DERIVING FROM THE VIRUS PAPILLOMAS OF WILD RABBITS UNDER NATURAL CONDITIONS

The naturally occurring virus papillomas of western cottontail rabbits become malignant occasionally. The cancers derive from the papilloma cells, that is to say from elements already rendered neoplastic by the virus and still infected therewith. Papillomas produced with the virus in jack rabbits and snowshoe rabbits become cancerous in the same way but much more frequently, as is the case in domestic rabbits also. To all three species the virus is foreign. The character of the cancers of the wild rabbits is described and the relation of the virus to them discussed on the basis of experimental findings. The facts support the view that the cancers result from virus variation, this in many instances being but slight.

The Eagles and the Hare

The construction assumed for the first sentence in this passage is that adopted by Verrall and Headlam, apart from some differences in detail. It seems unlikely that ἰδών can refer to what precedes, as some have thought; for it can hardly be supposed that the poet, who is using speed and economy (a point often neglected by critics), would pause to tell us that the great Seer merely ‘sees’ two distinctively coloured birds which ‘have appeared near by in a conspicuous station’ compare Homer's method (B321). Also it would involve us in the doubtful construction Ατρεϊδας έδάη λαγοδαίτας for ‘he knew the Ἀ. to be the λ.’ (or vice versa); the nearest parallel to this would appear to be Xen. Anab. 1. 7. 4 οἴους γνώσεσθε τοùς ἄνθρὡπονς, where the adjective makes some difference.

Research Items

Ethnography of the Washo of Nevada, U.S.A. ROBERT H. LOWIE, during a stay of several weeks at Minden, Novada, and at Coloville, California, in 1926, was able to supplement the somewhat exiguous technical information available concerning the Washo. This is an isolated stock or an aberrant Hokan group ranged about Lako Tahoe in western-most Nevada and easternmost California (Univ. California Pub. Amer. Ethnol. and Archccol., 36, 5; 1939). Kroeber sets their number in 1770 as possibly 1,500, where more recent figures approximate 300. Their settlements were minute, their huts usually being from two to four. The chief had nothing to do with fighting enemies or adjusting quarrels within the tribe. His sole function was to arrange dances and other gatherings, where he would exhort the Washo to be good. Special headmen led in hunting jack rabbits, deer and antelope respectively. The antelope headman dreamed the right to office, the two others were purely secular leaders, the rabbit chief being chosen by the people. Property rights were maintained for clumps of pine nut trees, patches being marked off by lines of rocks. While brothers never quarrelled over pine nut privileges, trespass by a stranger was resented. Acorns were not a staple of diet, though the Washo made a dish of them. The pine nuts were gathered by men and women co-operatively. When dried, the nuts kept for about a year. Along the Walker River, the Washo constructed many ‘fish houses’. Trout were speared and fish were also taken in nets or clubbed to death. Antelope, deer and jack rabbits were hunted communally. Other species of animal added to the food supply; porcupine, grasshoppers and locusts were eaten. The shamans became such through dreams, but not every dream was interpreted as a transfer of supernatural power, even though it might be of an uncanny character.

A Parasitological Reconnaissance in Alaska with Particular Reference to Varying Hares

A Parasitological Reconnaissance in Alaska with Particular Reference to Varying Hares

TULAREMIA, PULMONIC FORM

It has been only fifteen years since Edward Francis 1 described tularemia, a new disease in man. Since that time it has been widely recognized in all parts of the country. The ulceroglandular form is quite common in eastern Montana, where the wood tick Dermacentor andersoni and the jack rabbit are prevalent. We see relatively few cases due to the skinning of rabbits, since they are little used for food in this locality. Most of our cases are associated with tick bite or occur in the handling of tick-infested sheep. The incidence of infection varies greatly and seems to coincide with the rise and fall of the jack rabbit population. An epizootic of tularemia among the rabbits seems to kill off most of them and there is relative freedom from human tularemia for a few years until it develops in a new generation of rabbits. The present report is based

Western Highway Hazard for Jack Rabbits

Western Highway Hazard for Jack Rabbits

Western Highway Hazard for Jack Rabbits

Western Highway Hazard for Jack Rabbits

Recent Jack Rabbit Populations at Rapidan, Minnesota

Recent Jack Rabbit Populations at Rapidan, Minnesota

The Hare, the Tortoise and the Eagle

The Hare, the Tortoise and the Eagle

Transmission of Rabbit Papillomatosis by the Rabbit Tick, Haemaphysalis leporis palustris

Rabbit horns occurring on cottontails and on jack rabbits were described by Seton. He reported specimens collected in Oklahoma, Nebraska, and Colorado. Transmission of these tumors was accomplished by Shope, who described them as infectious papilloma. Shope further showed that the causative agent is to be classed as a filtrable virus, and succeeded in transmitting tumors to domestic rabbits. Our first attempts to transmit the infection to domestic rabbits were unsuccessful and we were unable to demonstrate any intracellular structures which might be termed inclusion bodies. Subsequently we succeeded in transmitting the tumors to cottontail rabbits, domestic rabbits, and to snowshoe hares. More recently Beard and Rous have established the experimental infection in snowshoe hares and in jack rabbits. We have observed many cases of the natural infection, and in Minnesota have found the condition to occur in more or less endemic areas. The occurrence of the tumors more conspicuously on the head and neck, and their discrete distribution on almost any part of the body, indicate insect or arthropod transmission.

Effectiveness of the Shope Papilloma Virus in Various American Rabbits

The virus causing cutaneous horns and papillomas in western cottontail rabbits (Sylvilagus floridanus, Allen) gives rise to vigorous growths of the same sort in domestic rabbits (Genus, Oryctolagus). In animals of both kinds these growths have the immediate character of neoplasms, and in domestic rabbits they frequently progress to cancer. For this reason, the biological range of effectiveness of the virus has a special interest. Thus far rabbits only have proved susceptible to the virus. A Kansas dealer supplying cottontails with “natural” papillomas states that he has never seen them in any of thousands of jack-rabbits (Lepus californicus, Gray); yet in one of 24 he sent us a small but typical growth existed, hidden by the fur. Three mixtures were made of the host's blood serum with various proportions of glycerinated cottontail papilloma extract, and after incubation all were rubbed into the scarified skin of each of 3 domestic rabbits, which received also similar mixtures made with the sera of 4 other jack rabbits of the same lot. Growths developed at every site except where the mixtures with serum from the papillomatous animal had been inoculated. The “natural” jack rabbit papilloma enlarged slowly for some weeks, when the animal died and it was removed to 50% glycerine. An extract made 36 days later and inoculated into scarified domestic, cottontail, jack and snowshoe rabbits (Lepus americanus, Erxleben), 3 of each, produced growths in all. They were indistinguishable from such as are caused by cottontail virus. In 2 further experiments 2 jack rabbits were inoculated with cottontail virus extracts of differing derivations. Growths appeared in 3 of the 4 animals, the fourth dying too soon to be deemed resistant. An extract of the glycerinated papillomatous tissue from 1 of the others gave rise to growths in 2 of 3 domestic rabbits and in 2 jack rabbits.

The White-Tailed Jack Rabbit in Manitoba

The White-Tailed Jack Rabbit in Manitoba

The Life Histories and Ecology of Jack Rabbits, Lepus alleni and Lepus californicus ssp., in Relation to Grazing in Arizona

The Life Histories and Ecology of Jack Rabbits, Lepus alleni and Lepus californicus ssp., in Relation to Grazing in Arizona

Jack Rabbits and Grazing Problems

Jack Rabbits and Grazing Problems

Research Items

Nose-piercing as a Puberty Ceremony.—Among the Kamia, an Indian tribe of Imperial Valley, southeastern California, nose-piercing is practised as the essential feature of the boys' puberty ceremony. According to information obtained by Mr. E. W. Gifford and recorded in Bull. 97 of the American Bureau of Ethnology, no youth can marry until he had undergone this operation. The usual age for marriage was about fifteen years. Not less than four boys can be operated on at one time, and if the number ready for the ceremony is insufficient it has to be postponed. The chief takes the initiative, but the parents' consent has to be obtained. Large quantities of food are necessary, of which the greater part is supplied by the chief and the rest by the parents. The chief's ‘policeman’ removes the boys to the bush during the latter part of the night, and remains with them until they return to their homes. The operation is performed by four operators, who use needles of screw-bean wood. Immediately after the operation the ‘policemen’ force the boys to run six or seven miles to a house and back, They are then kept at the place of operation for four days, and are allowed to eat only watermelon and corn mush. Each morning the ‘policeman‘ washes their noses with hot water, and day and night men and women sing continuously near the place of confinement. When on the morning after the fourth night they go home, they remain naked for a month and eat no fish, deer or jack rabbit. The hole in the septum is kept open by a piece of arrow-weed stick. Later, strings of white clamshell beads are worn hanging from the septum. Sometimes these are long enough to hang in front of the lips and have to be lifted when the man wishes to eat.

Jackrabbit Offers Fight to Six Men

Jackrabbit Offers Fight to Six Men

An attempt to cross hare and rabbit

An attempt to cross hare and rabbit