LEPUS AMERICANUS. ^o5 



O^ 



low of a tree or loi;". Its youno-, o-enerally one or two in number, 

 are born about the first of May, and are monstrous for the size of 

 the species. They are actually larger, and relatively more than 

 thirty times larger, than the young of the black bear at birth.* 



Josselyn, in his account of Tzvo Voyages to Nciv England, says : 

 "The Porcupine likewise I have treated of, only this I forgot to 

 acquaint you with, that they lay Eggs, and are good meat" (p. 



75)- 



The intestines of these animals usually contain large numbers of 



tape-worms. 



Family LeporiD-^. 



LEPUS AMERICANUS i:.xiebcn. 



Great NortJieni Hare ; N'orthcrii ]''aryi>ig Hare. 



The Northern Hare is found in greater or less abundance in 

 most parts of the Adirondacks above the altitude of fifteen hundred 

 feet (477 metres). Below this altitude, particularly on the eastern 

 or Champlain side of the Wilderness, it grades insensibly into the 

 southern x'ariety, Lcpus Americamis Virginianus. 



In summer the Northern Hare feeds upon a variety of tender 

 shoots, grasses, leaves, buds, and berries ; in winter its diet is 

 limited to the twigs and bark of shrubs and small trees, particularly 

 of the poplar, birch, and willow. 



The haunts of this species vary somewhat with the season. In 

 summer it is found in the dark evergreen forests, while in winter, 

 when the ground is frozen and covered with snow, it retires to the 

 swamps, and to the dense thickets, chiefiy of alder and black spruce, 



* May 1st, 18S2, I shot, at ]5ig Moose Lake, a female Porcupine which contained a fretus that 

 wouUl certainly have been born within two or three days. It weighed one and one-quarter pound 

 avoirdupois {567 grammes), and measured in total length eleven and one-fourth inches (285 mm.), 

 the head and body measuring about seven and three-fourth inches (just 195 mm.). It was densely 

 covered with long black hair, and the quills on its back measured a little over half an inch (13 

 mm.) in length. The discoid placenta measured two and one-quarter inches (57 mm.) in diameter. 



