S6o The Gray Rabbit (Lepus sylvaticus), [November, 



and disposed to attribute much of this mortality to the deep 

 snows making them easy prey, says of a certain species : " Their 

 numbers seem never to have increased much, north of the Colum- 

 bia and Snake rivers since the epidemic (small pox) destroyed 

 them some years since ; but south of these rivers they became 

 common." O, shade of Jenner ! Lepus variolus ! What says 

 the epicure to this variety? 



The gray rabbit has one form or bed to which it adheres with 

 a cat-like attachment, the runway to which may sometimes be 

 easily traced. If the gunner stations himself near this the 

 game retreating homeward becomes an easy prey. A hunter 

 told me when praising his hound, that by its bark he has distin- 

 guished the doubling at half a mile distant, and shot the rabbit 

 at its return ; but that an old rabbit, if you miss him, will avoid 

 his " bed," and give you trouble to get him. An old rabbit usu- 

 ally has a series of forms at distances of thirty or forty, yards 

 from its favorite one. These supplemental forms it uses for com- 

 fort's sake, and for strategic purposes. It dislikes to face the 

 wind, and when in repose keeps its back to windward. With the 

 change of wind, it will change its form. A change may be made 

 upon suspicion of danger ; or it may be circumvented when away 

 from its favorite form. Though if the danger be imminent, it 

 usually has some hole in the ground or place under or behind a 

 log, or in a brush-heap, into which it at once retreats. If not 

 taken too suddenly, there is a good deal of intelligence in its 

 methods of flight, as well as in its temporary change of domicile. 

 They do not connect their forms by their tracks, but take pro- 

 digious leaps, clearing at a bound from fifteen to twenty feet, and 

 the zig-zags and doublings are well suited to deceive. A curious 

 fact about their tracks might delude the unwary into the belief 

 that they were double, and directed backwards. The hare is vir- 

 tually a plantigrade, and its leaping is done with its hind legs, 

 much like that of the kangaroo. Upon the soft snow or on 

 the soft ground the spoor, or trail, of a rabbit in full jump com- 

 prises two dissimilar pairs of imprints ; a pair of small toe-tracks 

 inside, and a pair of large full foot-tracks outside. The series is 

 the impression of successive leaps, which are made in the follow- 

 ing way : The two little front feet or hands are put pretty close 

 together, while the hind feet are set somewhat widely apart. The 

 fore feet are then raised from the ground, and the body by the 



