306 MAMMALIA. 



bordering many of the lakes and beaver meadows.* At all times 

 of the year it inhabits the burnt districts that are strewn with 

 charred logs and grown over with blackberry bushes, studded here 

 and there with saplings of the poplar, birch, cherry, and shad-bush. 



It does not inhabit burrows, nor take refuge in hollow trees, like 

 the gray rabbit, but seeks temporary shelter under a log, tree-top, 

 young evergreen, or other covert where it is not likely to be dis- 

 turbed. Here it spends the greater part of the day, feeding chiefly 

 by night. It follows certain definite routes with such frequency 

 that regular runways are formed. In these it is often snared. 



About the borders of the Wilderness the Varying Hare is a 

 favorite object of the chase. It is hunted with hounds, during the 

 early winter months, and is shot while circling through the swamps, 

 or crossing from hill to hill in the burnt districts. Audubon and 

 Bachman state that its flesh is not good eating, to which opinion 

 I take exception, for, having eaten several dozens of them, I am 

 prepared to pronounce them tender and well-flavored. When 

 properly cooked they certainly constitute an excellent article of diet. 

 The above-mentioned authors observe : " This species in the 

 beginning of winter varies from three to six and a half pounds, but 

 we consider five and a half pounds to be an average weight of a 

 full-grown animal in o'ood condition." f In the Adirondack region 



o * * o 



a five-pound Hare is exceptionally large, the adults averaging not 

 more than four and a half pounds (2,041 grammes) in weight. 



I have never found the nest, but it is doubtless placed under a 

 brush heap, or in some other equally secure covert. From four to 

 six young are produced at a birth, four being the usual number. 

 They are born late in May. There may be two litters in a season, 

 but I have no proof of it. This species has many enemies, among 



* In my journal of a snow-shoe tramp in the Adirondacks, in January, 1883, I find the following 

 entry concerning this species : " Scarcely a track seen except about the borders of lakes and beaver 

 meadows. Very common near Big Otter Lake, and tolerably so at Little Safford Lake and in a 

 swamp west of Independence Lake ; also between Big Moose and Second Lake of North Branch, 

 and near the Forge." 



f Quadrupeds of North America, Vol. I, 1846, p. 96. 



