1884 .] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
17 
tender shoots of briars, buds, twigs, 'etc. 
They are very destructive to gardens, speedily 
consuming iettuce, cabbage, carrots, beets, bean 
plants, etc., and when abundant and driven 
for food, they tear down the stalks and con¬ 
sume the half ripened kernels in grain fields. 
They seriously injure young orcliards, gnawing 
and clipping the tender shoots with their sharp 
incisors as clean as if done with a knife — their 
work sometimes being cliarged to neighbors ac¬ 
cused of stealing cions for grafting. But hares 
are unjustly saddled with the depredations 
of field mice, which quickly ascend the trunks 
a foot or two before beginning their gnaw¬ 
ing the bark, which is then so rapidly done that 
few suspect them. Against rabbits or mice, a 
brown or white weasel about, or a tame ferret. 
within bounds. Hawks and minks prefer food more 
easily captured. Cats and dogs are readily tauglit to 
c.apture them, while the judicious use of snares may be a 
source of revenue as well as amusement to farmers’ boys. 
The Northern Hare prefers evergreen forests, and 
frequents the dry knolls contiguous to swamps in sum¬ 
mer, and the swamps themselves in winter. It is one- 
third to one-half larger than the Sylvan or Gray hare, 
and every way more powerful and long winded, more 
wily and astute, and never seeks concealment beneath 
the earth; it never troubles the farmer save during win¬ 
ters of ostraordinary severity, and is far less prolific. It 
is less suitable for the table, its food, chiefly evergreen 
buds and twigs, gives its flesh a well-marked flavor of 
fir tops. This species is also of a grayish color in sum¬ 
mer, assuming more of the leaden hue in autumn, in 
winter becoming white, or whitish-yellow, mottled with 
ocherish or tawny spots and blotches. It also runs in a 
circle when pursued, and once missed by the gunner, it 
is only necessary to wait patiently for its speedy return. 
I think their vision is even more imperfect than the 
Sylvan variety, since on more than one occasion, when 
closely pursued by the hound, I have known them to 
dash against intervening obstacles so violently as to 
cause instant death. Both species are easily killed, a 
very trifling wound being sufficient to stop one in his 
headlong career; and both are to be avoided in the 
POOR SHOW FOR “BTTHH X.” 
Drawn Qiy W. itf. Gary) and Engraved for the American Agrleultitrist. 
ing each year three to sis litters of flve to sis leverets 
each. The only provision made for their young is lining 
the form roughly with a little dried grass. Their food 
embraces various fruits, grass and other herbage, the 
is a valuable help. The weasel is one of the best abused 
creatures known, and its labors in destroying mice is 
beyond computation, while its decided preference for 
young leverets greatly helps to keep the prolific rabbits 
spring, since they are then low in flesh, and apt to 
harbor disgusting parasites, especially playing the host 
to the larvae of a species of oestrus, or gad-fl}', that deposits 
its eggs beneath the skin on either side of the neck. 
