The Cottontail 



the little cotton-tailed chap is once more at home in the woods. 



Like the white rabbit the cottontail has well-beaten paths, 

 which it follows winter and summer alike, but these are usually 

 not so extended and regular as those of its larger cousin. 



In winter the goshawk has a habit of following these paths 

 on foot in a most unhawk-like manner, especially where they 

 are arched over by bushes that might prevent the hawks from 

 pouncing down from above, and I believe that it is done with 

 the intention of driving the rabbits out into the open woods 

 where, perchance, the hawk's mate is waiting to seize them, 

 for goshawks usually hunt in pairs throughout the winter. Even 

 the common crow, unless I am very much mistaken, not in- 

 frequently manages to kill rabbits when the new snow is suf- 

 ficiently deep and light to prevent them from making full use 

 of their power of running. 



The rabbit's custom of resorting to burrows perhaps as fre- 

 quently proves a menace to its safety as otherwise, particularly 

 where, as is often the case, there is only one place of exit, for 

 the mink, the skunk and the weasel can all easily enter any open- 

 ing that will admit a rabbit and undoubtedly often get their 

 dinner in that manner. 



Last winter I saw what looked like a rabbit crouching among 

 the stems of a cluster of wild rose bushes, but on approaching 

 more closely I discovered that the animal had been dead for 

 several days, having evidently been killed by a weasel, and in 

 the struggle became so wedged between the briars that its captor 

 was unable to move it and must needs satisfy itself with suck- 

 ing its blood and leaving it in that position. 



Later some white-footed mice and a blue jay had also been at 

 work nibbling and pecking here and there, but by the time they 

 had discovered it it had evidently become frozen so hard as to 

 prevent their making much impression on it, so that at a dis- 

 tance of a few yards it looked as if still alive. 



The gray rabbit prefers above all things briar-grown berry 

 patches with a sprinkling of young pines and birches and nu- 

 merous rotting stumps of a former generation of trees, but readily 

 establishes itself in any kind of woods, high or low, while any 

 isolated clump of bushes a few rods in extent, whether it be by 

 the road-side or on the edge of a meadow is likely to harbour 

 a family of them. 



