1890. Lepus truei J. A. Allen, Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., 3:192, December 10, type from Mirador, Veracruz.
1950. Sylvilagus brasiliensis truei, Hershkovitz, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., 100:351, May 26.
Marginal records (Nelson, 1909:264, unless otherwise noted).—San Luis Potosí: Rancho Apetsco, Xilitla (Dalquest, 1950:4), thence down coast to Tabasco: Teapa. Chiapas: Huehuetan. Oaxaca: Santo Domingo. Veracruz: Buena Vista; Motzorongo. Puebla: Metlaltoyuca.
Sylvilagus bachmani
Brush Rabbit
Fig. 9. Distribution of Sylvilagus bachmani and Sylvilagus mansuetus.
- S. b. ubericolor
- S. b. tehamae
- S. b. macrorhinus
- S. b. riparius
- S. b. mariposae
- S. b. bachmani
- S. b. virgulti
- S. b. cinerascens
- S. b. rosaphagus
- S. b. howelli
- S. b. exiguus
- S. b. peninsularis
- S. b. cerrosensis
- S. mansuetus
Size small. Total length, 300-375; tail, 20-43; hind foot, 64-81; ear from notch (dry), 50-64; weight (topotypes of S. b. macrorhinus) 16 ♂ 679 (561-832), 22 ♀ 707 (517-843) grams. Body uniformly dark brown or brownish gray, but tail whitish beneath; hair on midventral part of body gray at base; only a slight crenulation of ridge of enamel which separates an individual molariform tooth into anterior and posterior sections. From Sylvilagus audubonii, the only other species of Sylvilagus in the same geographic area, S. bachmani differs in smaller size, less white on underparts (the hairs on the midventral part of the body being gray instead of white at base), shorter ears and legs, and a less crenulated ridge of enamel separating the anterior and posterior parts of a molariform tooth.
The brush rabbit is a Pacific Coastal species; as may be seen from figure 9 on the next page, this species occurs from the Columbia River on the north to the tip of Baja California on the south. Nowhere, so far as I can learn, does it occur as far east as the crest of the Cascade-Sierra Nevada Mountain Chain. Throughout its range the brush rabbit is closely associated with—in fact, lives in—the chaparral that is dense enough to afford protection from raptorial birds and the larger carnivorous mammals. The rabbit's reliance on protective cover is so great that, as pointed out on an earlier page, a person can turn this trait to advantage in protecting cultivated crops from inroads that the rabbits might make on them. The protection is afforded by clearing the brush from a strip forty-five feet wide so that the cleared strip intervenes between the cultivated crops and the brushy shelter. The rabbits will not risk crossing the open strip and hence do not reach the growing crops.