THE GREAT-EARED RABBIT.
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with impunity," he said, as he fell quietly into line.    So our sports run.    Camped at good water.
Jarvuanj 22.— Our day's march has been over high, ridgy prairie, with a scattering growth of musquit timber in the valleys, and here and there a solitary live-oak hung, as usual, with moss. The nopal, a species of cactus, was to he seen occasionally in small patches.
Here we saw the great-eared rabbit, one of the swiftest animals, as the hunters say, in the world. They are thrice the weight and size of the common rabbit, with silvery white sides, and ears enormously disproportioned.
As soon as we saw the first one, Old Hicks mentioned the fact of their remarkable speed. My curiosity was excited to test this. Very soon one of them bounced up from behind a cluster of nopal, within a few paces of us. My horse was very fast; I could easily catch a deer in a mile's race on him. I instantly struck off after the rabbit. He had not more than ten paces the start, so that it was a fair test. It seemed to me that he almost doubled the distance between himself and my horse—the latter going at the best gait he knew—every few moments; and I never was more surprised.
It appeared to be shod with wings instead of feet, moving, in long bounds, with such incalculable ease and speed over the wide, undulating plains, that it reminded me of a white gull gliding past a ship, and up and down the long swell of waves, after a storm.
I soon gave up the race ; for I perceived that I should lose sight of it directly, and that it could easily beat me something like a half in every mile I ran with it.
This is one of the remarkable creatures of our great plains; it seems to be solitary in its habits through the greater part of the year. I never saw more than one at a time, except in the rutting season; and it looks very odd to see one of them bound up suddenly near your feet, in the midst of these vast, bare wilds, and go
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