178 GRAY RABBIT. 



ermine pursued the Rabbits to the bottom of their holes, and terrified them 

 so that they instantly fled to the entrance and were taken alive in the 

 hand ; and although they sometimes scrambled up some distance in a 

 hollow tree, their active and persevering little foe followed them, and in- 

 instantly forced them down. In this manner the man procured twelve 

 Rabbits alive in the course of one morning, and more than fifty in about 

 three vi^eeks, when we requested him to desist. 



On more than one occasion we have seen the tracks of this species on 

 the snow, giving evidence, by their distance from each other, that the 

 animal had passed rapidly, running under the influence of fear. Exam- 

 ining the surface of the snow carefully, we observed the foot-prints of the 

 weasel, as if in pursuit, and following up the double trail, we found, at 

 the mouth of a hole a short distance beyond, the mutilated remains of the 

 luckless Rabbit. 



The Canada lynx, the Bay lynx, (wild cat,) the red and the gray fox, 

 &c., capture this species by stratagem or stealth ; various species of 

 hawks and owls prey upon them, and the rattle-snake, chicken-snake, 

 and other serpents have been killed with the Gray Rabbit in their sto- 

 mach. These reptiles probably caught their victims by stratagem, or by 

 stealing upon them when in their form, and enclosing them in their twin- 

 ing folds, as the boa constrictor captures larger animals. 



In order to catch or kill the Gray Rabbit, different means are resorted 

 to according to the fancy of the hunter or the nature of the locality in 

 which the animal may be. In the northern parts of the United States it 

 is pursued with dogs, and either shot or taken from the hole or other re- 

 treat to which it may have been driven. It is also frequently captured 

 in box-traps, or snares placed in the gaps of some brush-fence made in 

 the woods for the purpose. In the Southern States it is generally hunted 

 \/ith pointer dogs and shot at the moment when it leaps from its form. 



GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION. 



We have not heard of the existence of this species farther north than 

 the southern counties of the State of New Hampshire, beyond which it 

 is replaced by other and larger species. It cannot be said to be abun- 

 dant in the New England States, except in a few localities, and it does 

 not seem to prefer high mountainous regions. In occasional botanical 

 excursions among the Catskill mountains, and those of Vermont and New 

 Hampshire, where we saw considerable numbers of the Northern hare 

 we found scarcely any traces of the present species, especially in the 

 mountains east of the Hudson river. It exists in the chain of the Alle- 

 ganies running through Virginia to the upper parts of Carolina, but is 



