202 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [no. 27. 



The skins of this species are scarcely ever traded in the Mac- 

 kenzie region, owing probably to the cost of carriage, but according 

 to MacFarlane, the Hudson's Bay Company annually export many 

 thousands from Hudson Bay. 



Throughout the upper Mackenzie region during January, and to a 

 less extent during February, 1004, many thousands of rabbits per- 

 ished from disease. In some cases death overtook them as they sat 

 in their forms at the foot of trees or beneath logs or stumps; in other 

 cases the animals left the shelter of the woods and after wandering a 

 short time on the frozen surface of the river suddenly sprawled in 

 their tracks and died without a struggle. In the spring when the 

 snow went off many were found in all conceivable positions. After 

 February the disease seemed to have run its course, as no sick animals 

 or any which had recently died were found. When affected, the 

 rabbits become excessively thin. On skinning some which had died 

 of this disease I was at once struck by the dry condition of the skin 

 and flesh, which separated with difficulty. The viscera were in an 

 excessively moist condition. The stomach contained a small quan- 

 tity of comminuted woody food of the consistency of gruel. The 

 throat and lungs were much inflamed. 



Despite the thousands which were caught in snares or died from 

 disease the rabbits were fairly abundant when spring arrived. The 

 Indians still lived on them to a large extent, and when the breeding- 

 season arrived took note of the number of embryos, since on this de- 

 pended the relative abundance of the animals during the following 

 winter. The prospect was not encouraging, since in the few in- 

 stances where I ascertained the number it seldom exceeded two. 

 According to the natives the animals have three litters during the 

 summer. Young the size of red squirrels were seen near the mouth 

 of Nahanni River on June 6. 



While descending the Mackenzie in June, 1004, I found the species 

 common along its banks and learned that the area of abundance had 

 extended throughout the length of the Mackenzie. The animals were 

 especially common on the lower Mackenzie and Peel livers. When I 

 ascended the Athabaska in August of the same year, I found them 

 common there also. 



Through the kindness of correspondents I have been able to trace 

 the decline in numbers of the rabbits since my return from the Mac- 

 kenzie in 1004. They were still abundant during the winter of 1004—5 

 about Fort Simpson, though less so than in 1003-4. By December, 

 1905, they had become much scarcer, and in December, 1906, they 



«Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., XXVIII, p. 711. 1905. See also Poland's List, for 

 numbers of American hare skins collected by the Hudson's Bay Company 

 annually (with some exceptions) between 17SN and 1890. Poland's Fur-Bear- 

 ing Animals, Introduction, p. xxvn, 1892. 



