194 IN BERKSHIRE FIELDS 



fully. They remained in numbers till February, 

 and one or two even into March. But by March 

 sight or track of a European hare, either in the 

 woods or the fields and orchards, was as rare as, the 

 winter before, it had been common. Apparently 

 the owls cleaned them out, which, if true, is another 

 and excellent illustration of the balance which 

 nature maintains if left with a free hand. Out 

 West, of course, the jack-rabbits have become the 

 pest they have to no small extent because of the 

 extermination of the coyotes. 



But it looks now as if I should never see the moon- 

 light dance of the European hare ! 



It is sometimes hard to think of the rabbit as a 

 rodent, unless you find one of your young apple- 

 trees ringed by him above snow-line, and ringed by 

 the field-mice at ground-level! He is, in fact, a 

 sort of link between the rodents and a different 

 genus, for behind his two large gnawing teeth he 

 still has two smaller ones, useless now since he does 

 not eat flesh, and, unlike the rodents, his fore legs 

 will not turn inward, so he cannot use the paws for 

 hands, as a mouse or squirrel does. He employs 

 them only abortively when reaching up to 

 nibble, or when he has to stand on a carrot to hold it 

 firm. Yet he is a rodent, belonging to the great 

 family which includes squirrels, rats, mice, porcu- 

 pines, woodchucks, gophers, chipmunks, spermo- 

 philes, shrews. It is a hardy family, on the whole, so 

 adaptable and prolific that the rats and mice alone 

 are said to comprise twenty -five per cent, of all our 

 mammals. It is a family, too, which hardly de- 

 serves its ill repute, though its gnawing habits are 



