takes place in most bounding
animals.

Now the cottontail began a series of the most extraordinary leaps and
dodgings (D,E,F.) as though trying to escape from some enemy. But what
enemy? There were no other tracks. I began to think the rabbit was
crazy--was flying from an imaginary foe--that possibly I was on the
trail of a March hare. But at G I found for the first time some spots
of blood. {198} This told me that the rabbit was in real danger but
gave no due to its source. I wondered if a weasel were clinging to its
neck. A few yards farther, at H, I found more blood. Twenty yards
more, at I, for the first time on each side of the rabbit trail, were
the obvious marks of a pair of broad, strong wings. Oho! now I knew
the mystery of the cottontail running from a foe that left no track.
He was pursued by an eagle, a hawk, or an owl. A few yards farther and
I found the remains (J) of the cottontail partly devoured. This put
the eagle out of the question; an eagle would have carried the rabbit
off boldly. A hawk or an owl then was the assassin. I looked for
something to decide which, and close by the remains found the peculiar
two-paired track of an owl. A hawk's track would have been as K, while
the owl nearly always sets its feet in the ground {199} with two toes
forward and two toes back. But which owl? There were at least three in
the valley that might be blamed. I looked for more proof and got it on
the near-by sapling--one small feather, downy, as are all owl
feathers, and bearing three broad bars, telling me plainly that a
barred owl had been there lately, and that, therefore, he was almost
certainly the slayer of the cottontail. As I busied myself making
notes, what should come flying up the valley but the owl himself--back
to the very place of the crime, intent on completing his meal no
doubt. He alighted on a branch ten feet above my head and just over
the rabbit remains, and sat there muttering in his throat.

The proof in this case was purely circumstantial, but I think that we
can come to only one conclusion; that the evidence of the track in the
snow was complete and convincing.

{198}

[Illustration: TRACKS; 1. Blarina in snow; 2. Deermouse; 3. Meadow
mouse; 4. Masked shrew.]

{199 continued}

Meadow Mouse

The meadow mouse autograph (page 189) illustrates the black-track
method. At first these dots look inconsequent and fortuitous, but a
careful examination shows that the creature had four toe