A LIFE OF FEAR. 199 



SuddenJy the track came to an end, as if the 

 creature had taken wings — as it had after an 

 unpleasant fashion. There, on either side of 

 its last foot imprint, were several parallel lines 

 in the snow, made by the wings of the great 

 owl that had swooped down and carried it off. 

 What a little tragedy was seen written there 

 upon the white, even surface of the field! 



The rabbit has not much wit. I once, when 

 a boy, saw one that had been recently caught, 

 liberated in an open field in the presence of a 

 dog that was being held a few yards away. 

 But the poor thing lost all presence of mind 

 and was quickly caught by the clumsy dog. 



A hunter once saw a hare running upon the 

 ice along the shore of one of the Eangely lakes. 

 Presently a lynx appeared in hot pursuit; as 

 soon as the hare found it was being pursued, 

 it began to circle, foolish thing. This gave the 

 lynx greatly the advantage, as it could follow in 

 a much smaller circle. Soon the hare was run 

 do^vn and seized. 



• I saw the same experiment tried with a red 

 squirrel with quite opposite results. The boy 

 who had caught the squirrel in his wire trap 

 had a very bright and nimble dog about the 

 size of a fox, that seemed to be very sure he 

 could catch a red squirrel under any circum- 

 stances if only the trees were out of the way. 

 So the boy went to the middle of an open field 

 with his caged squirrel, the dog, who seemed to 

 know what was up, dancing and jumping about 

 him. It was in midwinter; the snow had a 



