The jack-rabbit is characteristic of the prairie.
When a jack-rabbit starts up before them, one of the coyotes bounds away in pursuit while the other squats on his haunches and waits his turn, knowing full well that the hare prefers to run in a circle, and will soon come round again, when the second wolf takes up the chase and the other rests in his turn..
Distantly allied to the prairie-hare or white-tailed jack-rabbit, are several forms distinguished by having a more or less distinct black stripe on the upper surface of the tail.
The pocket-gopher and the jack-rabbit are so numerous as to be great pests.
Its most characteristic animals and birds are the white-tailed jack-rabbit, pallid vole, sage hen, sharp-tailed grouse and greentailed towhee; the large Columbia ground-squirrel (Spermophflus columbianus) is common in that part of the zone which re west of the Rocky Mountains, but east of the Rockies it is replaced by another species (Cynomys) which closely resembles a small prairie dog.