372 MONOGRAPHS OF NORTH AMERICAN RODENTIA. 



was due to an epidemic. So abundant had these species been for several 

 vcars prior to 1869 ami 1870 that some of the Mormon residents were accus- 

 tomed to shoot them merely to feed their swine; while so scarce bad they 

 become in 1871 thai comparatively few of either species were to be found, 

 and it was with difficulty that 1 could obtain any specimens. 



Richardson, in speaking of the Northern Hare {Lepus americanus), states 

 that "at some periods a sorl of epidemic has destroyed vast numbers of Hares 

 in particular districts, and they have not recruited again until after a lapse of 

 several years, during which time the Lynxes were also scarce."* Dr. J. G. 

 Cooper has also recorded a similar fact respecting the Hares of Columbia 

 Plains. He says: "During our journey east of the Cascade Mountains we saw 

 scarcely any Hares, and the Indians told us that some fatal disease bad killed 

 nearly all of them. ''f Mr. G. Gibbs, in speaking of the same region, says, under 

 the head of Lepus campestris: "In 1853, we were informed by the Yakima 

 Indians living north of the Columbia, that a very fatal disease had recently 

 prevailed among these animals, winch had cut them almost all off. "J Dr. 

 Cooper, some years later, again refers to the same subject as follows: "Their 

 numbers [referring to L. " townsendi " — L. campestris] seem never to have 

 increased much north of the Columbia and Snake Rivers since the epidemic 

 (small-pox'!) destroyed them several years since, but south of those rivers 

 they became common." He adds, however: "It is a question whether an 

 epidemic really made them scarce northward, or whether the prevalence of 

 uncommonly deep snow did not enable the Indians to kill more of them, as 

 with Deer and Antelopes."§ According to the testimony of the Indians them- 

 selves, however, they were destroyed by an epidemic. 



Similar epidemics are also well known to affect the Deer and Pronghorns. 

 As I have stated elsewhere,|| a fatal epidemic raged among the Pronghorns 

 {Antilocapra americana) during the summer of 1873 over nearly the whole 

 area between the Yellowstone and Missouri Rivers, destroying apparently 

 three-fourths to nine-tenths of them, over which extensive region their 

 decaying carcasses were abundant during September of that year. At this 

 time, very few were seen living, where a few months before numbers were 

 almost constantly within view. 



* Fauna Bor.-Aiuer., vol. i, p. 218. 



t P. R. R. Reports, vol. xii, pt. ii, p. 87. 



} P. R. R. Reports, vol. xii, pt. ii, p. 131. 



§ American Naturalist, vol. ii, p. 536. 



|| Proc. Bost. Soc. Nat. Hist., vol. xvii, p. 40. 



