630 Life-histories of Northern Animals 



run before the engine until overtaken. Apparently it does not 

 occur to them to plunge out of the brightly-lighted dangerous 

 space into darkness and safety at one side. The figures above 

 show that a considerable proportion may be thus destroyed. 



VOICE I have often heard the White-hare give a loud squeal when 



in extreme fear, but I think, not when in great pain. This 

 squealing is uttered also by the Cottontail, the English Rabbit 

 and the English Hare. The female of the last-named is said 

 to have a soft plaintive call for the young. The Jack-rabbit 

 of Kansas, I know, makes a snarling sound, when fighting with 

 its own kind. Probably these cries are also uttered by the 

 Snowshoe. 



MATING In Manitoba the mating season is about the first of March. 



What their marriage customs are has not yet been ascertained. 

 While many observers consider the Hares promiscuous, or 

 polygamous, there is some testimony that tends to clear the 

 species from such charges. 



A good father generally means a good husband, and it 

 is strong evidence in favour of their true monogamy when we 

 find the male animal fighting in defence of the young; and of 

 mating, as distinguished from promiscuity, when the male 

 fights in defence of the female; and it is a further disproof of 

 polygamy when two males live peaceably together in the 

 presence of females during the mating season. All of this we 

 can find in Bachman's description of some White-hares that 

 he kept and bred in captivity. "The old males at this period," 

 he says,^ in describing their family life, "seemed to be animated 

 with renewed courage; they had previously suffered them- 

 selves to be chased and worried by the common English 

 Rabbit, even retreated from the attacks of the Gray-rabbit; 

 but they now stood their ground, and engaged in fierce com- 

 bats with the other prisoners confined with them, and generally 

 came off victorious. They stamped with their feet, used their 

 teeth and claws to a fearful purpose, and in the fight, tore off 



3 Q. N. A., Vol. I, pp. 98 and 99. 



