Tan Lines XIII

Image: Subject and photographer unknown.

The Hares of the Americas

In North America rabbits are known as cottontails but the hare, confusingly, is called a jackrabbit.

Ten species of hares can be found throughout the Americas – the Black-tailed jackrabbit, the Antelope jackrabbit, the Black jackrabbit, the Sage hare, the White-sided jackrabbit (or Mexican hare), the Tehuantepec jackrabbit, the White-tailed jackrabbit, the Snowshoe hare (or Varing hare), the Alaskan or Tundra hare, and the Arctic hare.


Image 1: Black-tailed jackrabbit.
Image 2: Snowshoe hare.

Morning Light XXIII

Image: Bryan Feiss (photograper unknown).

Tragedy and Retribution

In England, perhaps because it is so rare a sight, a white hare used to be the object of a particular fear, an embodiment of tragedy and retribution. Girls who died forsaken by their lovers were said to return in the form of white hares. Only the faithless lover would, in most of these stories, be able to see the hare. In all, it follows him everywhere, sometimes saving him from danger, but invariably causing his death in the end.

– George Ewart Evans and David Thomson
The Leaping Hare
p. 164

Image: Cathy.

Tan Lines XII

Subject: Rafael Branciforti. Photographer: Unknown.