routed by the plough, I have seen the old one
take flight with half a dozen young hanging to her teats, and with such
reckless speed, that some of the young would lose their hold, and fly
off amid the weeds. Taking refuge in a stump with the rest of her
family, the anxious mother would presently come back and hunt up the
missing ones.

The snow-walkers are mostly night-walkers also, and the record they
leave upon the snow is the main clew one has to their life and doings.
The hare is nocturnal in his habits, and though a very lively creature
at night, with regular courses and run-ways through the wood, is
entirely quiet by day. Timid as he is, he makes little effort to conceal
himself, usually squatting beside a log, stump, or tree, and seeming to
avoid rocks and ledges where he might be partially housed from the cold
and the snow, but where also--and this consideration undoubtedly
determines his choice--he would be more apt to fall a prey to his
enemies. In this as well as in many other respects he differs from the
rabbit proper (_Lepus sylvaticus_); he never burrows in the ground, or
takes refuge in a den or hole, when pursued. If caught in the open
fields, he is much confused and easily overtaken by the dog; but in the
woods, he leaves him at a bound. In summer, when first disturbed, he
beats the ground violently with his feet, by which means he would
express to you his surprise or displeasure; it is a dumb way he has of
scolding. After leaping a few yards, he pauses an instant, as if to
determine the degree of danger, and then hurries away with a much
lighter tread.

His feet are like great pads, and his track has little of the sharp,
articulated expression of Reynard's, or of animals that climb or dig.
Yet it is very pretty, like all the rest, and tells its own tale. There
is nothing bold or vicious or vulpine in it, and his timid, harmless
character is published at every leap. He abounds in dense woods,
preferring localities filled with a small undergrowth of beech and
birch, upon the bark of which he feeds. Nature is rather partial to him
and matches his extreme local habits and character with a suit that
corresponds with his surroundings,--reddish-gray in summer and white in
winter.

The sharp-rayed track of the partridge adds another figure to this
fantastic embroidery upon the winter snow. Her course is a clear, strong
line, sometimes quite wayward, but generally very direct, steering for
the densest, most