208 
MAMMALIA. 
bordering many of the lakes and beaver meadows.* At all times 
of the year it inhabits the burnt districts that are strewn with 
charred logs and grown over with blackberry bushes, studded here 
and there with saplings of the poplar, birch, cherry, and shad-bush. 
It does not inhabit burrows, nor take refuge in hollow trees, like 
the gray rabbit, but seeks temporary shelter under a log, tree-top, 
young evergreen, or other covert where it is not likely to be dis- 
turbed. Here it spends the greater part of the day, feeding chiefly 
by night. It follows certain definite routes with such frequency 
that regular runways are formed. In these it is often snared. 
About the borders of the Wilderness the Varying Hare is a 
favorite object of the chase. It is hunted with hounds, during the 
early winter months, and is shot while circling through the swamps, 
or crossing from hill to hill in the burnt districts. Audubon and 
Bachman state that its flesh is not good eating, to which opinion 
I take exception, for, having eaten several dozens of them, I am 
prepared to pronounce them tender and well-flavored. When 
properly cooked they certainly constitute an excellent article of diet. 
The above-mentioned authors observe : “ This species in the 
beo-innino- of winter varies from three to six and a half pounds, but 
we consider five and a half pounds to be an average weight of a 
full-grown animal in good condition.” f In the Adirondack region 
a five-pound Hare is exceptionally large, the adults averaging not 
more than four and a half pounds (2,041 grammes) in weight. 
I have never found the nest, but it is doubtless placed under a 
brush heap, or in some other equally secure covert. From four to 
six young are produced at a birth, four being the usual number. 
They are born late in May. There may be two litters in a season, 
but I have no proof of it. This species has many enemies, among 
* In mv journal of a snow-shoe tramp in the Adirondacks, in January, 1883, I find the following 
entry concerning this species : “ Scarcely a track seen except about the borders of lakes and beaver 
meadows. Very common near Big Otter Lake, and tolerably so at Little Safford Lake and in a 
swamp west of Independence Lake ; also between Big Moose and Second Lake of North Branch, 
and near the Forge.” 
| Quadrupeds of North America, Vol. I, 1846, p. 96. 
