96 Game Survey of the North Central States 



1876. He has the impression that this excessive abundance o.f white rabbits 

 prevailed throughout Trempealeau County. He says these rabbits were so numer- 

 ous that in the spring, when the snow receded, he could look over miles of hill- 

 side "hopping with" their white forms. 



H. T. Olson, a farmer near Taylor, Jackson County, says that he has seen 

 no "snowshoes" for 25 years, but that around 1880 they were very abundant, 

 inhabiting not only the alder swamps, but also the scrub oak in the draws on the 

 edges of the ridges. In those days, he says, there was much less timber in west 

 Jackson County than at the present time, due to the prairie fires which then 

 prevailed, and some settlers had difficulty in getting enough wood for domestic 

 use, in spite of the then thin farming population. 



George Weisenberger, of Arcadia, Trempealeau County, says that there are a 

 few "big rabbits which turn white in winter" two miles east of Arcadia near 

 a cemetery, where he has seen them for 10 years. 



In interpreting these three observations, the first question which arises is 

 the species to which they refer. North Trempealeau and east Jackson Counties are 

 a kind of country entirely different from any now inhabited by snowshoe rabbits. 

 Olson and other observers make it clear that when first settled this country was 

 so open as to approximate prairie conditions. It therefore seems likely that the 

 observations on "white rabbits" refer to jack-rabbits, in spite of one observer's 

 insistence that they were snowshoes. If this is correct, it probably means that 

 jack-rabbits were indigenous to western Wisconsin, and that they are capable of 

 irruptive behavior in this State. The 1876 and 1880 dates are probably the two 

 ends of one and the same period of abundance. 



The location of the Trempealeau irruption is shown on Map 9. The in- 

 stance is important for several reasons. It is evidence of a radical change from 

 a semi-prairie to a semi-forested condition, due to the checking of fires by settle- 

 ment. It contains a warning that the jack-rabbit is capable of becoming a possible 

 pest. If, on the other hand, the irruption involved snowshoes instead of jack- 

 rabbits, it means their former range included a type of mixed hardwood and 

 prairie wholly different from any range now occupied by snowshoes. 



Snowshoe "Rabbit." While not an important game animal, the snow- 

 shoe is important to game conservation because of its probable role in the 

 mechanism of the game cycle, its known importance in diverting predators from 

 more valuable game, and because of the damage it inflicts upon forest plantations. 



In distribution it has receded northward since the settlement of the country, 

 certainly in Michigan, and probably in the other Lake States. Lee R. Dice says 

 it once occurred at Ann Arbor, Michigan, and also in northern Ohio. Its re- 

 cession from this territory is probably due to the drainage of tamarack swamps. 



Fragments of the present south boundary were determined during the sur- 

 vey in Wisconsin, and are shown on the map. 



The cyclic fluctuations of the snowshoe are very violent. No one has 

 ever directly measured the density in favored spots during the "highs" and 



