Help on New England Cottontail ID

NE cottontail

Hi everybody

I’m looking for help from the Mammal Watching community about a recent trip I did to Cape Cod, MA

Indeed, I was looking for New England Cottontails and based on Jon’s trip there in 2013 where it is written that “Matt had heard that Eastern Cottontails are not present in the Mashpee area in Cape Cod, so any rabbit should be one of the New England flavor” I said to myself that I should give a try.

From the observations I made there in July 2019, I can say that this is apparently no longer true and that Eastern cottontails are now in Mashpee. In the pdf document I’m joining to my post, I put pictures of 4 rabbits we observed in the same afternoon on Surf Drive in Mashpee, all in people’s lawns. I was hopping someone could help me and confirm the analysis I make. To me, rabbit #1 is clearly an Eastern cottontail given the white spot on the forehead. I can’t really say for rabbits #2 and #3 but I’d like to convince myself that rabbit #4 has all the New England Cottontail diagnostics (no white spot on the forehead, a dark spot between the ears and black leading edges to the ears). Would you agree with this?

Thanks in advance for your help

Regards

Samuel