SPORTS OF THE WINTER WOODS 301 



woods in his hunt for breakfast, but who sees him 

 do it? There the white-footed mouse has made 

 a curious pattern of foot-dots from his home 

 stump to some other entrance to a way beneath 

 the snow, the straight trail of his tail showing 

 between the tiny foot tracks. In another place 

 the fox has left his curious one-two-three, one- 

 two-three footsteps. 



It is sufficient sport for the morning to take the 

 early rabbit trails and see what has become of 

 their maker. Some woodsman ]may have seen 

 the rabbit making these tracks unconscious of 

 supervision, but I will confess that I never have. 

 Up North I have often watched the varying hare 

 about his business when he had no idea that I 

 was one of the party, but the sophisticated Mas- 

 sachusetts rabbit has always been too clever for 

 me. But it is not so difficult to follow the tracks, 

 confusing as they sometimes are in their labyrin- 

 thine route, to their end for the forenoon. This 

 is usually a snuggery under some brush or in a 

 tangle of dried grasses and ferns. Here I fancy 

 the rabbit backing in and crowding out a sitting- 

 room and then sitting in it. He will stay in this 

 "form" until you fairly kick him out, and when I 

 have done this, as politely as possible under the 



