198 RIVERBY 



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, liber- 

 ated 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 Rangeley lakes. Pres- 

 ently 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 ad- 

 vantage, as it could follow in a much smaller circle. 

 Soon the hare was run down and seized. 



I saw the same experiment tried with a red squir- 

 rel 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 circumstances 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 firm crust that 

 held boy and dog alike. The dog was drawn back a 

 few yards and the squirrel liberated. Then began 

 one of the most exciting races I have witnessed for 

 a long time. It was impossible for the lookers-on 



