Snowshoe-rabbit 635 



The life of the White-hare is in the same places and con- winter 

 tinues much the same in winter as in summer. The principal "^""^ 

 changes are those of coat and of diet. 



So far, I have not seen any sign of migration in the species, non- 

 The individuals that I had in my park kept the same part of tury^' 

 the woods in winter as in summer, and the three or four ' forms ' 

 that were their homes when the snow was on the ground, 

 were still their homes in the height of the warmest weather. 



I suspect, however, that it has a habit of occasional torpid- 

 torpidity. It is well known that the English Hare and the 

 common Cottontail will lie up, under stress of bad weather, 

 letting the snow drift over them. There they continue sev- 

 eral days without eating, and in a semi-torpid state, until 

 aroused by some outside change for the better. I never saw a 

 White-hare doing this, but from the fact that no tracks are 

 seen for a day or two after a very cold spell, I can readily be- 

 lieve that they share the family habit. In the case of the White- 

 hare on the knoll, referred to in the paragraph on home-range, 

 his tracks were not seen for two or three days after each heavy 

 snow-storm, and in the spring we found a lair in a rocky 

 crevice where, no doubt, he whiled away the worst of the 

 weather. 



Of all our rodents the Hares are least given to flesh- food 

 eating. Yet we know the domestic Rabbit will sometimes eat 

 its own young, and I should not be surprised to find the White- 

 hare at some time showing the morbid taste for meat that it is 

 not supposed to indulge. 



Its summer food is grass, clover, and a great many herba- 

 ceous things that its nose or its instinct enable it to select with- 

 out danger of poisoning. Its winter diet is dead grass, buds, 

 and the bark of poplar, willow, dwarf birch trees, and occa- 

 sionally tamarac. In some localities it eats a great deal of 

 white cedar and spruce leaves, so that its taste becomes un- 

 pleasantly strong of resin, and on that account is judged unfit 

 for human food. 



