Among the serious pests in orchards and tree plantations are the several native species of rabbits. These animals do considerable damage to garden truck and other farm crops also, especially on lands recently opened to cultivation. North American rabbits belong to two general classes easily distinguished by their size and habits.

The larger forms[1] include the arctic and varying hares, or snowshoe rabbits, and the jack rabbits, and are found throughout nearly all of Alaska and Canada and in all the States west of the Mississippi except Arkansas and Louisiana. East of the Mississippi they inhabit the northern parts of Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan, most of New York and New England, and southward in the Appalachian Mountains, parts of Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia.