rabbit vs hare

Good, Travis. I wondered who would remember jack rabbits. Also, in northern Canada, there are also arctic hares. I had always thought that my cat took a great disinterest in TV, until once, on the Discovery Channel, a sequence came up of a Canadian lynx chasing an arctic hare. Schatzi followed each jump, even trying to follow the hare off-screen, until the bloody end. All a matter of content, I reckon. I guess the next thread should be pigeon vs. dove...

We have both rabbits (cottontails) and hares (jackrabbits) where I live, and if you see them, you don't confuse one with the other -- they look very different! Jackrabbits are much bigger and longer in the leg, face, and ears than a true rabbit, and of course they differ in how helpless and furred they are at birth. Can't speak for all Americans, but I have always known that rabbits and hares are different, as it is pointed out in every mention in any text on the subject. I don't think we are any less aware of it than other groups. And of course, Bill Bryson is incorrect -- there are BOTH hares and rabbits in America.

Of course, there is a tendency to call all lagomorphs "rabbits" in general, and differentiate the hares only when being particular. And I suppose if we lived in South America (I think that's where they live), we would also have to worry about the third lagomorph group -- pikas, which with their small size and modest ears look much more like rodents, but are actually related to rabbits and hares.