Peter Cottontail is a fictional rabbit in the works of Thornton Burgess, an author from Springfield, Massachusetts.[1] In 1910, when Burgess began his Old Mother West Wind series, the cast of animals included Peter Rabbit. Four years later, Peter Rabbit briefly changed his name to Peter Cottontail, soon returning to his original name because, as he put it, "There's nothing like the old name after all."[2][3]
The 1971 Easter television special Here Comes Peter Cottontail was based on a 1957 novel by Priscilla and Otto Friedrich entitled The Easter Bunny That Overslept. The name is sometimes used as a euphemism or alternative to the term Easter Bunny. Harrison Cady. who illustrated Burgess' books, wrote and drew the syndicated Peter Rabbit comic strip from 1920 to 1948.