Notes on Birds and Mammals. TRL 
whilst its usual habitat, winter and summer, is chiefly on 
the islands (such as Wollaston and Victoria Lands) north 
of the Arctic coast. Here I saw a good many cock birds in 
the spring of 1851, but shot only a few, as they were very 
shy, possibly with the object of drawing me away from 
their wives, none of which were seen, as they were resting, 
and lay close on some of the lands uncovered by snow, 
where their already brown plumage was not readily seen. 
The cock retains its winter plumage to a much later date 
in spring than the hen does. These birds do not all 
migrate to the south to pass the winter. 
All over the wooded portion of what is, or was, usually 
called the Hudson’s Bay Company’s Territory, east of the 
‘Rocky Mountains, comprising an extent of country equal 
to a quarter of Europe, the American hare (Lepus Ameri- 
canus) is to be found in greater or less numbers; but it may 
not be generally known that these animals are every ten 
years attacked by an epidemic, so fatal, that from being in 
great numbers, they gradually die off until scarcely any 
are left, after which they begin to increase, and at the end 
of ten years are again at their maximum. I have myself, 
seen two cycles of this curious occurrence, and am acquaint- 
ed with men in the Hudson’s Bay Company’s service who 
have witnessed four or five of these events. For instance, 
a friend wrote to me a few months ago, saying that 1884-85, 
were years of abundance, and 1880-81, years of scarcity, 
and that 1895-96 will again probably be years of plenty. 
My friend, the late Sir John Richardson, a distinguished 
naturalist and keen observer, states somewhere in “Fauna” 
“that the hares migrate.’ He must have relied upon 
erroneous information, and his residence in the country was 
at no one time long enough to enable him to observe for him- 
self. After the epidemic commences, the hares are found dead 
in their forms, usually under small pine trees, the branches 
and thick brush of which grow close down to the ground. 
It is difficult to account, satisfactorily, for this regularly 
recurring and terrible epidemic, but it may be produced as 
follows: The hares are not spread broad-cast over the 
