1 882.] The Gray Rabbit ( Lepas sylv aliens ) . 857 



atists jumped at the conclusion that by " North American Hare," 

 the savant meant Lepus americanns. It was some sixty years 

 afterwards when Professor Baird translated Schoepf s description, 

 and said in connection : " It is not a little remarkable, that this, 

 one of the best known animals of North America, should not 

 have received a distinct scientific name until 1837, when Dr. Bach- 

 man gave it the name Lepus sylvaticus" the wood hare. Other 

 scientists had worked on the case, but, in fatal confusion, had 

 mistaken the individual. Schreber, in 1792, named it L. nana, the 

 dwarf hare, a good name, but his description applied to another 

 hare. So it fell out that the only canonic christening the little 

 fellow got, was received of Rev. John Bachman, a collaborator of 

 Audubon. In what follows, the words hare and rabbit will be 

 used interchangeably. 



A curious appearance is sometimes noticeable upon the snow 

 after it has lain a few days. The foot-tracks and hard fecal pel- 

 lets of the rabbit are seen, and close by certain reddish-brown 

 stains, like spots of oxydized blood. These, in mistake, I once 

 explained as probably haemorrhoids produced by constipation due 

 to the dry fibrous food to which a severe winter reduces the ani- 

 mal, when succulent food cannot be got. This is not the true 

 cause. Something similar is seen in winter when the bees of an 

 apiary, after being snowed-in, are " dug out." The snow around 

 the hives is immediately thickly spotted with small brownish 

 orange stains, Bee keepers call it " bee dysentery." It is sim- 

 ply due to the cleanly habits of the insect. It will not defile the 

 hive, so practices a severe continence until it can get out. In 

 the hard winter of 1880, the hungry rabbits ventured into the 

 gardens of Freehold, N. J., and in a number of places the snow 

 was stained with these bloody spots. It is certainly interesting to 

 know that all this comes of the almost fastidious cleanliness of 

 the animal. Should it find no better shelter in the cold weather, 

 it must occupy its " form," or " bed," that is, its squatting place, 

 into which it pushes its back parts, then flattens itself like a toad 

 in its hole. Thus squatted, such is the resemblance of color to 

 the ground, that the hunter has strode close to the animal's nose 

 and missed it. This form may be a depression in the side of the 

 bank, or under a log, or in a tussock of grass, or in some low, 

 bushy, close-leaved plant. Suppose a snow-storm, and the ani- 

 mal gets " snowed under," there is heat enough to make a little 



