96 THE DRAMA OF THE FORESTS 



tection, and the nest is lined with leaves, grass, or their own 

 cast-off fur. 



A rabbit snare is made of fine babiche, sinew, cord, or 

 wire, and the loop is hung over a rabbit runway just high 

 enough to catch it round the neck. In its struggles it sets off 

 the spring or tossing-pole, thus usually ending its sufferings. 

 When thus caught the flesh is tender and sweet; but when 

 caught by a leg the flesh is flabby and tasteless, the reason being 

 that when caught by the neck the rabbit is killed almost in- 

 stantly ; but when snared by a leg it hangs struggling in pain for 

 hours before it finally bleeds at the nose and dies, or is frozen 

 to death. When the latter happens, however, the rabbit is 

 usually thrown to a dog or used for trap bait. The reason 

 Oo-koo-hoo set the rabbit snares was not so much for present 

 needs as to provide meals for the hunter while on his future 

 rounds; also to keep on hand a goodly supply of trap bait. 



Expert hunters, when they have time, prefer to hunt rabbits 

 by calling them. In the rutting season they imitate the love- 

 call of the female, and in other seasons they mimic the cries of 

 the young; in either case, the unsuspecting animals come loping 

 from all directions, and the hunter bowls them over with fine 

 shot. Calling takes much practice, but when the hunter has 

 become an adept, it is the easiest and the quickest way of 

 catching them. 



In relation to setting snares for rabbits, Mrs. Wm. Corn- 

 wallis King, the wife of a well-known Hudson's Bay Company's 

 chief trader, once had an unusual experience. She had set for 

 rabbits a number of snares made of piano wire, and when visiting 

 them one morning she was astonished and delighted, too, to 

 find caught in one of her snares a beautiful silver fox ; stranger 

 still, the fox was caught by its tongue. As usual, after in- 

 vestigation, the snow told the whole story in a graphic way. 

 It showed that the fox had been pursuing a rabbit, both going 

 on the full run, and the latter always dodging in the effort to 



