1 882.] The Gray Rabbit (Le pus sylvaticus). 859 



"guessed," dear souls, that "the naturalist wasn't nice enough 

 about his victuals." 



Our gray rabbit is often badly tormented with wormals, or 

 worm-holes, in the skin, like the worbles of cattle. These are 

 really subcutaneous bots, due to the presence, under the pelt, of 

 the larvae of Cuterebra funiculi Clark. Packard speaks of this 

 species of fly infesting rabbits in the South, but they have long 

 been too common in New Jersey. Over the pit occupied by each 

 grub or maggot, is a clean-cut hole through the skin, which 

 serves the larva for a breathing place. They are the most notice- 

 able in the early fall, when the animal is in its best condition ; for 

 as the grub or larva feeds on the juices of its host, the mother-fly 

 does not deposit her eggs upon the " ill-favored and lean-fleshed." 

 I am told, however, of a boy who caught a rabbit in the 

 winter, and took it to a friend of' mine to skin, and it was too 

 badly infested to be usable. Professor C. V. Riley writes me 

 thus : " I have received the larva of Cuterebra cuniculi as early 

 *as July 19th. The larvae were at that time full grown, and pu- 

 pated four days later. I have also found them, both large and 

 small, as late as September, so there is probably but little uni- 

 formity in their development, and it is not particularly strange 

 that they should be found in the larval state in the winter." The 

 hunters say : " The grub leaves after frost." The places specially 

 infested on the animal, are the back and neck, and forward parts 

 of the shoulders. So bad is this at times that a suppuration 

 occurs under the pelt, and an attempt to flay the animal starts the 

 pus flowing, and the loathsome cadaver is cast away. Nor is 

 this flow of maturation to be taken for the effect of wounding 

 the larva by the knife. The skillful dresser of such small game 

 scarcely uses the knife in skinning, except at the head and toes, 

 drawing the pelt off like a stocking. 



But the hare family is often the subject of an epidemic. In 

 his grand monograph on the Leporidae, says J. A. Allen : " In the 

 case of our little wood hare (L. sylvaticus), I have repeatedly met 

 with their dead bodies in the woods and thickets, bearing no 

 marks of a violent death, and have noted the scarcity of these 

 animals during the years immediately following." The Indians 

 declare that the hares as a food supply are sometimes seriously 

 reduced by disease. Mr. Allen cites Dr. J. G. Cooper in Ameri- 

 can Naturalist, who although as against the Indian averment, 



