1 882.] The Gray Rabbit ( Lepus sylvaticus). 939 



face. It has a bed made of dry leaves and grass, and on top 

 some fur or hair, which the mother has torn from her own breast. 

 The litter numbers from four to six. So small is the hole that 

 the mother cannot nestle in it with her young, but she suckles 

 them at the front or entrance, where she adjusts herself, then by a 

 sort of wuzzling, not purring ; sound, she calls the little ones, the 

 call being at once obeyed. The maternal brooding and fondling 

 which impart so much comfort to the mother's care, are unknown 

 to our gray rabbit. During the suckling period she occupies a 

 slight depression in the ground a few yards off, from which the 

 motherly watch is kept. I think she can give the alarm to her 

 little ones, for they will keep well back in their nest and very 

 quiet in time of danger, while the mother from her form will en- 

 deavor to divert an enemy. But despite these vigils something 

 may happen to bring the tenderlings to grief. Should they 

 escape preying animals, for the mother is courageous in defence 

 yet the sloping nature of the nest invites the rain, and a storm 

 may drown the whole litter. Then the shallowness of the nest is 

 such that the plough has often turned up all to perish in the cold 

 winds of March. Should all go well, three weeks of suckling 

 will suffice, when they become so large as to crowd their cave- 

 like nest. Now the mother sets them adrift. The rabbit litters 

 when very young, ere it has attained half its growth. A female 

 may have two litters raised before she is a year old. 



As already hinted, the male of L. sylvaticus gives himself no 

 concern about the little ones, and is of loose morals at best. As 

 for the petted L. cuniadus, he is no better than a beastly blue- 

 beard in his own household. But lest all father hares be set 

 down as so depraved, I shall instance, by way of episode, a pretty 

 exception, even should the story seem to some sensational. In 

 the months of May and June, 1860, Professor F. V. Hayden and 

 his party of U. S. explorers, found themselves up in the Alpine 

 snows of the Wind River mountains, where they were detained 

 several days in an attempt to feel their way to the Yellowstone. 

 On the 31st of May Dr. Hayden declared that a new species of 

 hare was around, as he had observed unusually large hare tracks 

 in the snow. As the Doctor expressed himself to us : " The 

 tracks were very large, the feet being wide-spread, and the hair 

 thick between the toes, thus really furnishing the animal with 

 snow-shoes " In June one was captured, and the Doctor named 



