BABBIT TBACKS 147 



eaters serve to guide them to the aniiuiil food they hunt. 

 The ears of the cannibal beasts open forward, and have 

 little pockets in their outside edges, like sounding 

 boards, to catch the sounds coming from behind them." 



"Wh}^ ^Ir. Wolf and Quick have those things in 

 their ears. Fve often wondered whether they were 

 tears or bites, or made so on purpose," said Nat. 



" To return to our ]\Iarsh Hare, who lives in soft 

 ground, liiding by dense bushes and often hides in the 

 water itself with his ears flatteued back and only his 

 eyes and nose })eepiug above it, Avhat use would long 

 legs be to him ? Me does not go into farms and gar- 

 dens for his food, but browses on twigs and marsh roots. 

 He could not leap al)out in such places, and hairy soles 

 would make liis feet heavy and soggy when he swims, 

 and he slinks along close to the ground when on land. 

 His greatest danger is from great water snakes and 

 alligators. His nest, made of chewed-np reeds some- 

 times nicely arched like a Meadowlark's, is often placed 

 on so small a hummock that it seems to float like that 

 of a marsli bird, and the very young Marsh Hares have 

 funny, chubby little heads quite unlike the little Wood 

 Hare. 



" You must go quite across country if you expect to 

 find tlie third Hare of the group. If you move west 

 to Texas in a straight line from tlie Marsh Hare's 

 liaunts, you will find tlie most astonishing member of 

 tlie Hare family. Anywhere from Texas to Montana, 

 or from ^lissouri to the Pacific, if you see a cloud of 

 dust following the ground in the open, or a miniature 

 cyclone part the grass, stop a bit and watch. What 

 is it going by ? A blown-away windmill, a Kangaroo 



