s will feed, and in winter
time the place may become such a network of runways that if it happens
to be a fairly open hillside one can see from half a mile away the
shadows of the endless tracks that mark the glistening snow in all
directions.

During the years of great plenty--which the Indians and traders assert
come about every seventh year--the number of rabbits in some sections
of the northern forest is almost beyond belief. Then a plague suddenly
overtakes them, almost wiping them out of existence, and several years
elapse before the disease disappears and they begin to increase again.
The plague, of course, is the rabbit's greatest enemy, then follows the
lynx, the fox, the wolf, and many other animals and even birds such as
the owl and the hawk; but somewhere among that destructive group man
plays a prominent part.

THE RABBIT AND THE HUNTER

The rabbit, or more properly the varying-hare, of the northern forest
is also called the snowshoe rabbit, from the fact that nature has
provided it with remarkable feet that allow it to run with ease over
the deepest and softest snow. It wears a coat that changes colour with
the changing seasons: brown in summer and white in winter. Its food is
derived principally from the bark of the poplar, the willow, and the
birch. In winter time rabbits are found to be fattest when the moon is
full, and that is accounted for by the fact that they feed at night,
and feed most when the moon is giving light. Besides, on stormy
nights, especially between moons, they remain more under cover and feel
less inclined to venture out even to secure their needed food. In all
the north woods there is no animal that is of more use to man, beast,
or bird, than the rabbit, nor is there any animal that is so friendly
to all alike; yet no other creature of the wilderness is so preyed upon
as the rabbit. But in winter its safety lies not so much in the great
speed it possesses as in its snowshoe feet and in its skill in dodging.
Rabbits mate in March and April, the usual litter of three or four
being born about a month later. The nest is usually on the ground in
some sheltered place under brushwood that forms a good protection, and
the nest is lined with leaves, grass, or their own cast-off fur.

A rabbit snare is made of fine babiche, sinew, cord, or wire, and the
loop is hung over a rabbit runway just high enough to catch it round
the neck. In its struggles it sets off the spring or toss