514 COMMON BUZZARD. 
to prefer fresh-water marshes, where its food can be most conveniently 
obtained. It feeds on various grasses, gnaws off the twigs of the young 
sassafras, and of the pond spice (Laurus geniculata). I have seen many 
places in the low grounds dug up, the foot-prints indicating that it was 
the work of this species in search of roots. It frequently is found dig- 
ging for the bulbs of the wild potato (Apios tuberosa), as also for those 
of a small species of Amaryllis (Amaryllis Atamasco). 
‘* IT possess a living animal of this species, which was sent me a 
few weeks ago, having been captured when full grown. It became 
so gentle in a few days that it freely took its food from the hand. It 
is fed on turnip and cabbage leaves, but prefers bread to any other food 
that has been offered to it. It is fond of lying for hours in a trough of 
water, and seems restless and uneasy when the trough is removed, 
scratching the sides of its tin cage until it has been replaced, when it 
immediately plunges in, burying the greater part of its body in the 
water. 
* Tt has already shed a great portion of its summer, and resumed 
its winter, dress. The hairs on the upper surface, instead of becom- 
ing white at the point, as in the American Hare, have grown long and 
black, through which the brownish parts beneath are still distinctly 
visible. 
‘“‘ This species, like others of the genus existing in this country, as 
well as in the deer and squirrels, is infested with a troublesome larva 
of an cestrus in the summer and autumn, which, penetrating into the 
flesh, and continually enlarging, causes pain to the animal, and renders 
it lean. One of these larvee dropped from an orifice in the throat of 
the hare which I have in confinement. It was of the usual cylindrical 
shape, but appears to differ in some particulars from the Wstrus cuni- 
” 
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