t's Story of His Life, Written by Himself

Yes, the Rabbit wrote it himself and about himself in the oldest writing
on earth, that is the tracks of his feet.

[Illustration: A WOODCRAFT TRAGEDY

As shown by the Tracks and Signs in the Snow]

In February of 1885, one morning after a light snowfall, I went tramping
through the woods north of Toronto, when I came on something that always
makes me stop and look--the fresh tracks of an animal. This was the
track of a Cottontail Rabbit and I followed its windings with thrills of
interest. There it began under a little brush pile (a); the bed of brown
leaves showing that he settled there, before the snow-fall began. Now
here (b) he leaped out after the snow ceased, for the tracks are sharp,
and sat looking around. See the two long marks of his hind feet and in
front the two smaller prints of his front feet; behind is the mark made
by his tail, showing that he was sitting on it.

Then he had taken alarm at something and dashed off at speed (c), for
now his hind feet are tracking ahead of the front feet, as in most
bounding forefoots, and the faster he goes, the farther ahead those hind
feet get.

See now how he dodged about here and there, this way and that, among the
trees, as though trying to escape some dreaded enemy (c, d, e, f).

But what enemy? There are no other tracks, and still the wild jumping
went on.

I began to think that the Rabbit was crazy, flying from an imaginary
foe; possibly that I was on the track of a March Hare. But at "g" I
found on the trail for the first time a few drops of blood. That told me
that the Rabbit was in real danger but gave no clue to its source.

At "h" I found more blood and at "j" I got a new thrill, for there,
plain enough on each side of the Rabbit track, were finger-like marks,
and the truth dawned on me that these were the prints of great wings.
The Rabbit was fleeing from an eagle, a hawk, or an owl. Some twenty
yards farther "k" I found in the snow the remains of the luckless Rabbit
partly devoured. Then I knew that the eagle had not done it, for he
would have taken the Rabbit's body away, not eaten him up there. So it
must have been a hawk or an owl. I looked for something to tell me
which, and I got it. Right by the Rabbit's remains was the large
twin-toed track (l) that told me that an owl had been there, and that
therefore he was the criminal. Had it been a hawk the mark would have
been as shown in the left lower cor