00-KOO-HOO'S EL DORADO 95 



During the years of great plenty — which the Indians and 

 traders assert come about every seventh year — the number of 

 rabbits in some sections of the northern forest is ahnost beyond 

 behef. Then a plague suddenly overtakes them, almost wiping 

 them out of existence, and several years elapse before the dis- 

 ease disappears and they begin to increase again. The plague, 

 of course, is the rabbit's greatest enemy, then follows the lynx, 

 the fox, the wolf, and many other animals and even birds such 

 as the owl and the hawk; but somewhere among that destruc- 

 tive group man plays a prominent part. 



THE RABBIT AND THE HUNTER 



The rabbit, or more properly the varying-hare, of the north- 

 ern forest is also called the snowshoe rabbit, from the fact that 

 nature has provided it with remarkable feet that allow it to run 

 with ease over the deepest and softest snow. It wears a coat 

 that changes colour with the changing seasons: brown in summer 

 and white in winter. Its food is derived principally from the 

 bark of the poplar, the willow, and the birch. In winter time 

 rabbits are found to be fattest when the moon is fuU, and that is 

 accounted for by the fact that they feed at night, and feed most 

 when the moon is giving light. Besides, on stormy nights, 

 especially between moons, they remain more under cover and 

 feel less inclined to venture out even to secure their needed 

 food. In all the north woods there is no animal that is of more 

 use to man, beast, or bird, than the rabbit, nor is there any 

 animal that is so friendly to aU alike; yet no other creature of 

 the wilderness is so preyed upon as the rabbit. But in winter 

 its safety hes not so much in the great speed it possesses as in 

 its snowshoe feet and in its skill in dodging. Rabbits mate in 

 March and April, the usual litter of three or four being born 

 about a month later. The nest is usually on the ground in 

 some sheltered place under brushwood that forms a good pro- 



