COMMON MAMMALS OF WESTERN MONTANA. 



41 



RABBITS AS TICK HOSTS. 



All three species are often very badly infested with ticks, over 

 TOO having been found on a single snowshoe rabbit. Fortunately, 

 however, these ticks usually belong to species which seldom attack 

 domestic animals or human beings and are therefore comparatively 

 unimportant. Nevertheless a few adult fever ticks have been found 

 on rabbits. 



INJURY TO CROPS AND FRUIT TREES. 



Rabbits often injure garden truck, hay, and growing grain more or 

 less seriously, but the greatest damage which they cause in fruit 



» 



Fin. 33. — Apple tree Injured by rabbits. 



districts is eating the bark of orchard trees. (Fig. 33.) This is 

 usually done in the winter, when other food is covered with snow. 

 Although apple and pear trees are most frequently attacked, cherry 

 trees and others also occasionally suffer. Blackberry and raspberry 

 bushes also are frequently injured. "When the rabbits attack the 

 bark of a tree they sink their big front teeth into it and pull it off 

 in strips, sometimes repeating the process until large areas of bark 

 are removed and the tree killed or seriously injured. ' 



484 



