218 CONSERVATION OF CANADIAN WILD LIFE 
This approaches very closely the prevailing popular idea 
of a seven-year cycle for this animal. They are not gener- 
ally equally abundant throughout the country in the same 
year, the abundance is usually regional in character, and 
the period of general abundance would cover several years. 
The fur returns indicate the year of the average maximum 
abundance. The regional character of the abundance of 
the rabbit will be shown from the following data of various 
observers, which Seton* has collected regarding the periods 
of increase in different regions of Manitoba. 
Lake of the Woods, 1856, followed by a plague in 1857 
(Hind). 
Upper Assiniboine, 1857 (Hind). 
Savanne Portage (70 miles west of Fort William), 1858-9 
(Hind). 
Portage La Loche, 1875 (J. Macoun). 
Shoal Lake and Stony Mountain, 1883-4, followed by a 
plague in 1885 (J. H. Cadham). 
Red River and Assiniboine Valley, all the poplar country 
in the basins of Lakes Manitoba and Winnipegosis, 
Pembina, Riding, Duck and Turtle Mountains, 
1886-7, followed by a plague in 1887. 
Shoal Lake, Manitoba, 1893-4 (W. G. Tweddell). 
Central Manitoba, 1894. 
In other parts of Canada, Seton records the following: 
Northern British Columbia, 1872 (J. Macoun). 
Mackenzie River Valley, 1903-4. Preble also describes 
the enormous abundance of rabbits in this region 
during the same period, when, according to Seton, 
there were ‘‘millions in 1904, none at all-in 1907.” 
The last period of abundance reached its climax in the 
Northwest in 1914. When I visited the Rocky Mountains 
*“Tife Histories of Northern Mammals,” vol. I, pp. 640-641, 1909. 
+E. A. Preble, ‘A Biological Investigation of the Athabaska—Mackenzie 
Region,” North American Fauna, No. 27, Washington, 1908. 
