636 Life-histories of Northern Animals 



I find a curious note in my Journal which may be a food 

 item: August 28, 1904. While examining Snake Island in 

 Lake Winnipegosis to-day, I was struck by the quantities of 

 Rabbit dung lodged in every cranny of the rocks that char- 

 acterize the north side of the island. Each sheltered nook was 

 thickly pebbled over with the pellets. In some places a bushel 

 might have been collected within a radius of ten feet. It was 

 probably left there in winter, as it had the fibrous, woody 

 quality of winter dung. It was far above high water mark and 

 it could not have drifted here. I suppose that the sheltering 

 rocks caused the Rabbits to seek these places. A remarkable 

 feature of the dung piles was a large mixture of crayfish 

 remains. There were hundreds of claws and leg pieces 

 scattered through them. I cannot account for their presence 

 there. Possibly it was accidental. 



DRINK The young Snowshoe will, as I have seen, drink milk in 



quantities, but, so far as known, the adult never drinks any- 

 thing. 



SPEED The Snowshoe's safety is chiefly in its speed. It can clear 8 



or 10 feet at a bound and make 4 bounds to a second, that is at 

 the rate of over 26 miles an hour. It has further the two 

 advantages of a light creature, it can get up full speed at once 

 and dodge with marvellous adroitness; and, above all, its 

 faithful snowshoes are there to turn the dreadful snow-drifts 

 into staunch allies. 



Like the Jack-rabbit, the White-hare will sometimes make 

 an observation hop, or high leap, as it runs, to take in the situa- 

 tion, but it does not do it so often or so well as its prairie cousin; 

 obviously the act is of less service to the woodland species. 



SWIM- Few persons know that this dry land, fluffy thing can swim. 



It does not love the water, nevertheless it does not hesitate to 

 take the plunge when it needs must, and swims well for con- 

 siderable distances. The following instance I recorded at 

 Carberry, Man., in November, 1886: 



MING 



