Cottontails were most active at dawn and especially, dusk, and were
more active on dark nights than on moonlight nights. Cottontails were
most active when the air temperature was between 0 deg. F. and 33 deg. F. and
when rain was not falling. Activity increased as the percentage of
ground covered by snow increased and as the abundance of food
decreased. Activity did not vary with physiological condition except
that as body weight decreased activity increased--probably because of
lack of food.

The home range is used most intensively near centers of activity that
are near woodland edges or in other areas of good cover. Cottontails
often ranged through the woods and along edges but did not cross open
areas more than 75 feet wide. Cottontails use their home range most
intensively in winter when they are forced to move long distances in
poor cover, searching for food. More than one cottontail may use sites
of good cover at the same time and two or three used the same resting
place at different times.

Two instances of homing were observed; cottontails moved 1,100 and
1,800 feet to return to their home ranges, but one cottontail that
escaped 1700 feet from home failed to return.

The average home range of 18 cottontails for whom adequate data were
gathered was 8.34 acres. The home ranges of males averaged 1.16 acre
larger than those of females. In summer, cottontails increased their
home ranges 5 to 15 per cent by taking advantage of cover provided by
the more abundant vegetation. Cottontails three weeks to five months of
age lived in home ranges of between 0.1 and 4.0 acres and enlarged
their home ranges almost to their ultimate full size in the first
winter.

LITERATURE CITED

ALLEN, D. L.

1939. Michigan cottontails in winter. Jour. Wildl. Mgt.,
3(4):307-322, 6 half-tone pls., 7 tables.

CONNELL, J. H.

1954. Home range and mobility of brush rabbits in California
Chaparral. Jour. Mamm., 35(3):392-405, 6 figs., 2 tables.

DALKE, P. D.

1937. A preliminary report of the New England Cottontail studies.
Trans. Second North Amer. Wildl. Conf., 542-548.

1942. The cottontail rabbits in Connecticut. State of Connecticut
Public Document No. 47, State Geological and Natural History
Survey Bull. No. 65. 1-97 pp., 22 figs., 43 tables.

DALKE, P. D., and SIME, P. R.

1938. Home and seasonal ranges of the eastern cottontail in
Conne