LEPUS AMERICANUS. 207 



low of a tree or loo-. Its young, generally one or two In number, 

 are born about the first of May, and are monstrous for the size of 

 the species. They are actually larger, and relatively more than 

 thirty times larger, than the young of the black bear at birth.* 



Josselyn, in his account of Two Voyages to New England, says : 

 " The Poj'ciipine likewise I have treated of, only this I forgot to 

 acquaint you with, that they lay Eggs, and are good meat" (p. 



75). 



The intestines of these animals usually contain large numbers of 

 tape-worms. 



Family Leporid.^. 



LEPUS AMERICANUS Erxleben. 

 Great Northern Hare ; NortJiern Varying Hare. 



The Northern Hare is found in greater or less abundance in 

 most parts of the Adirondacks above the altitude of fifteen hundred 

 feet (477 metres). Below this altitude, particularly on the eastern 

 or Champlain side of the Wilderness, it grades insensibly into the 

 southern variety, Lepus Americaniis Virginzanus. 



In summer the Northern Hare feeds upon a variety of tender 

 shoots, grasses, leaves, buds, and berries ; in winter its diet is 

 limited to the twigs and bark of shrubs and small trees, particularly 

 of the poplar, birch, and willow. 



The haunts of this species vary somewhat with the season. In 

 summer it is found in the dark evergreen forests, while in winter, 

 when the ground is frozen and covered with snow, it retires to the 

 swamps, and to the dense thickets, chiefly of alder and black spruce, 



* May 1st, 18S2, I shot, at Big Moose Lake, a female Porcupine which contained a foetus that 

 would certainly have been born within two or three days. It weighed one and one-quarter pound 

 avoirdupois (567 grammes), and measured in total length eleven and one-fourth inches (285 mm.), 

 the head and body measuring about seven and three-fourth inches (just 195 mm.). It was densely 

 covered with long black hair, and the quills on its back measured a little over half an inch (13 

 mm.) in length. The discoid placenta measured two and one-quarter inches (57 mm.) in diameter. 



