670 Life-histories of Northern Animals 



While driving near Neepawa one day Dr. Thompson saw 

 a Jack-rabbit that bounded along a prairie ridge, then sud- 

 denly squatted under a tussock. A Fox appeared close at 

 hand; he also had seen the Rabbit, and slunk out of sight into 

 a hollow, along which he ran as fast as he could, so as to come 

 under the place where the Jack was sitting. As soon as he 

 was within 50 yards Reynard commenced an elaborate stalk, 

 like a cat, crawling on his belly till he was within 15 feet of 

 the unconscious Rabbit. He was now as close as he could 

 get undiscovered; so carefully placing each foot he braced 

 himself and made a grand leap, but fell short. The Jack was so 

 alarmed that at first it seemed to loose its head; jumped about 

 back and forth and high in the air for a few times, but before 

 the Fox could close, it got under way, and off they went. Within 

 100 yards the Fox was left far behind and gave up the chase. 



DISEASES A deadly epidemic of some sort has appeared more than 

 once among the Prairie-hares in the far West, when they have 

 been unduly multiplied, but I have not heard of this occurring 

 among those in Manitoba. The whole family, however, is 

 notoriously beset by many diseases. A. S. Barton writes: 

 *' We have not eaten any of them for years; so many have on 

 the back a cyst full of watery fluid and quantities of white eggs, 

 which I take to be the eggs of tape-worm. This disease, or 

 whatever it is, does not affect the condition of the animal in 

 the least." On February 25 ('07) I opened a 2-inch cyst on 

 the side of a large male White-jack in Wyndygoul Park; on 

 March 14 I opened a much larger one on the same animal. 

 It contained about 2,000 embryonic tape-worms, the size of 

 No. 6 shot. The cyst was 5I inches by 3I by 2 inches high. 

 The Jack seemed indifferent alike to cyst, worms and operation. 



Dr. T. S. Palmer, in his report on the Jack-rabbits, says:^° 

 "Many persons have a prejudice against eating Jack- 

 rabbits because the animals are infested, at certain seasons, with 

 parasites, or because the flesh is supposed to be 'strong.' 



"> U. S. Dep. Agr. Bull., 8, 1896, pp. 71-2. 



