SOPER — THE SNOWSHOE RABBIT 
101 
NOTES ON THE SNOWSHOE RABBIT 
By J. Dewey Soper 
To the average lover of the open, the life-history of the snowshoe rab- 
bit cannot have escaped a certain measure of familiarity. Usually it is 
the most common animal of the woods and it would be difficult for even 
a casual saunterer to overlook it. There has sprung up quite an exten- 
sVe literature concerning it, and it seems impracticable for the present 
purpose to attempt a fud account of its life-history. So I propose only 
to amplify certain less frequently considered phases. This idea came to 
me recently from thumbing through the pages of some old field journals, 
recalling to mind many incidents pretty well dimmed by the passage of 
time, but now revived, together with a host of minor episodes not 
recorded by the pen. It has many times occurred to me as peculiar 
that some of the most palpable of facts escape the notebook. Perhaps 
it is because of the very quality of commonness that this is so, and only 
the unusual facts find their way into the chronicles of the fields. 
Most of the notes in this instance were collected in the wilds, in the 
Indian country, in the late fall and winter, and as previously intimated, 
I enjoy a very vivid recollection of numerous occurrences wh’ch various 
wayward journeyings have afforded. I also have found discrepancies 
in the life of the snowshoe rabbit there, from that which ordinarily 
obtains in the settled East sufficient to compel that striking interest 
which follows fresh discoveries. 
The lives of the various individuals of a species are very different, 
depending largely upon their situation. The relationship of a hare to its 
environment in an eastern swamp, encircled by prosperous farms, for 
instance, cannot be precisely similar to that of another in the relatively 
uninhabited forests of the North. Its mode of existence basically may 
be nearly or quite the same, but occasional events change the effect as 
a whole. These may be trifling or the reverse but the consequences are 
perceptibly altered from the standpoint of the animal, and a fresh slant 
of interest afforded its chronicler. For this reason, I suppose, a very 
great deal may be written concerning any of our animals of wide range, 
without materially duplicating in detail former experiences. 
It would be difficult to visit the northern wilds under ordinary condi- 
tions without striking up some acquaintance with the snowshoe rabbit. 
Its presence is often of the most obtruding character. There are seasons 
though when its absence becomes quite as singular as is its abundance 
at other times. The phenomenal balance maintained in the perpetua- 
JOUKNAL OP mammalogy, VOL. 2, NO. 3 
