Now You See It, Now You Don’t — Image by kenne
In the SCVN program for children, there’s an activity, “Now Yo See It,” designed to teach children about camouflage — animals are colored the way that they are to help them survive in their environment. It is not always easy to see some animals, like the jackrabbit in this bush. If I had not seen the jackrabbit running from a bush neared to me, I would not have noticed him — Run Jack, Run!
This is not an ideal photograph of a jackrabbit, but it does show why we don’t always see them in the desert.
— kenne
A Zuni Legend
Jack-rabbit and Cottontail
Anciently the Jack-rabbit lived in a sage plain, and the Cottontail rabbit lived in a cliff hard by.
They saw the clouds gather, so they went out to sing. The long-legged Jack-rabbit sang for snow, thus:
“U pi na wi sho, U pi na wi sho,
U kuk uku u kuk!”
But the short-legged Cottontail sang for rain, like this:
“Hatchi ethla ho na an saia.”
That ‘s what they sung – one asking for snow, the other for rain;
hence to this day the Pók’ia [Jack-rabbit] runs when it snows,
the Â’kshiko [Cottontail] when it rains.
Thus shortens my story.
