Mi 



I: 



il 



I '!>■:. 



372 



MOUOGRArUS OF NORTH AMERICAN EODENTIA. 



was due lo an epidemic. So abundant had tliesc species been for several 

 years prior to 18C9 and 1870 that some of tlie Mormon residents were accus- 

 tomed to shoot them merely to feed tlieir swine; while so scarce had they 

 become in 1871 tliat comparatively few of either species were to be found, 

 and it was with difficulty that I could obtain any specimens. 



Richardson, in speaking of the Northern Hare (Lepus americanux), states 

 that "at some periods a sort of epidemic has destroyed vast numbers of Hares 

 in particular districts, and they have not recruited again until after a lapse of 

 several years, during which time the Lynxes were also scarce."* Dr. J. G. 

 Cooper has also recorded a similar fact res lecting the Hares of Columbia 

 IMains. He says: "During our journey east of the Cascade Mountains we saw 

 scarcely any Hares, and the Intlians told us that some fatal disease had '.illcd 

 nearly all of them.''t Mr. G. Gibbs, in speaking of the same region, says, under 

 the head of Lepus campestris: "In 1853, we were informed by the Yakima 

 Indians living north of the Columbia, that a very fatal disease liad recently 

 ])rcvailed among these animals, which had cut them almost nil otf."J Dr. 

 Cooper, some years later, again refers to the same subject as follows: "Their 

 numbers [referring to L. " town. sen di " :=:L. cnmpestrial seem never to have 

 increased much north of the Columbia and Snake Rivers since the epidemic 

 (small-pox?) destroyed thorn several years since, but south of those rivers 

 they became common." He adds, however: "It is a question whether an 

 epidemic really made them scarce northward, or whether the prevalence of 

 uncommonly deep snow did not enable the Indians to kill more of them, as 

 with Deer and Ant.yiopes.''^ According to the testimony of the Indians them- 

 selves, however, they were destroyed by an epidemic. 



Similar epidemics are also well known to afl'ect the Deer and Pronghorns. 

 As I have stated elsewherc,|| a fatal epidemic raged among the Pronghorns 

 {Antilocnpra americana) during the summer of 1873 over nearly the whole 

 area between the Yellowstone and Missouri Rivers, destroying apparently 

 tiiree-fourths to nine-tenths of them, over which extensive region their 

 decaying carcasses were abundant during September of that year. At tliis 

 time, very few were seen living, where a few months before numbers were 

 almost constantly within view. 



* Fauna Bor.-Aiiier., vol. i, p. 218. 

 t P. I{. K. Reports, vol. xii, pt. li, p. W. 

 t P- R. R. Reports, vol. xil, pt. ii, p. J31. 

 ( Auicricnn Nntnraliat, vol. W, p. &ilO. ' 

 II Proc. Boat. Sw. Nat. Hist., vol. xvil, p. 40. 



