TRACKS IN THE SAND 67 



pear in the least obliterative. The cottontail 

 often depends on his concealingly colored coat 

 to escape detection, and we may pass him within 

 a few feet and fail to see his motionless body 

 among the dry leaves. The northern varying 

 hare has no rear white signal and when he lopes 

 off, he looks, to one used to a cottontail, like a 

 cowed animal with tail between the legs. 



At the lower end of the sand dunes one may 

 find the tracks of that world-wide traveler and 

 pest of mankind, the Norway rat. I have no 

 doubt he voyaged to these shores on sand schoon- 

 ers and left by the convenient gangway. His 

 tracks are in form like a squirrel and his naked feet 

 make clean marks and show well the details. His 

 naked tail grooves the sand at times. His canny 

 nature was well shown one night when I had set 

 traps for small native mice and had laid paths of 

 cornmeal along the sand. The next morning 

 showed the tracks of rats all about, but never 

 nearer than eight or ten inches from the traps. 

 A week later I visited the same locality and no rat 

 tracks were to be found. They had deserted the 

 dangerous region. 



