Interbreeding of Varieties of Beasts and Birds. 77 are maintained by interbreeding. For instance, sparrows and other finches with white wing quills may be seen breeding with normally attired individuals; and no doubt the silver-grey, like the cross fox, freely cohabits with the red fox of North America. It is therefore probable that with extremes only there is any great repugnance to intercourse. Nevertheless we observe a strong disposition in certain species,-nay, even genera and families of animals-to produce albino and black varieties. Of the latter, both foxes and squirrels furnish good examples, to which further reference will be made in the next chapter. CHAPTER III. A spect of the Forest after a Snow-storm-Tracks of Wild Animals on the Snow-Hare; its changes of Pile-Adaptation of the Feet of Wild Animals for Snow Travelling-Feet of Moose and Caribou compared— Their Habits-Extermination-Moose and Irish Elk compared-On the Interment of Fossil Deer-Enormous Horns of Moose-Modes of Hunting the Native Deer-Origin of Moss Swamps and Caribou Barrens-The Pitcher Plant-Beaver; its Habits and Extermination-Musk Rat-Porcupine, small Muridæ-Bats-Squirrels-Melanism -Flying Squirrels-Effects of the Climate on European Brown Rat and Mouse. THE HE perfect stillness of a Canadian forest during or immediately after a heavy fall of snow is something remarkable; solemn silence reigns supreme, for it is no longer broken by the cracking or creaking of branches, or the notes and forms of bird or beast. The scenery is also changed; you wander down some familiar pathway to find it transmuted into what recollections might suggest in a Christmas pantomime. Here, the pines and spruces, with their boughs overburdened with snow, slope downward, whilst masses are piled up round the trunks, and those of the leafless maples and deciduous leaved trees which stand out in spectre-like ugliness. The enormous accumulations of snow on the branches of spruce and pine trees would appear to act mechanically by their dead weight, hence it may be from this cause that the boughs have attained the graceful downward swoop so characteristic of the conifers of high latitudes, inasmuch as the fibres become outstretched, so that even on relieving a branch of its load of snow it will only partially return to the horizontal. We may on like occasions estimate the numbers of quadrupeds in a district by their Aspect of the Forest after a Snow-storm. 79 tracks visible after a fall of snow. One of the first to stir when the weather clears up is the lynx. I have frequently followed its footprints for miles, now noticing when one had sat on its haunches by a fir stump, watching the outcomings of mice; then where it had made a spring on the creature, the tiny tracings of whose feet look like as if a large beetle had crawled over the soft surface; but they terminate abruptly, not however too soon for the mouse's safety, for just as the mighty paw had been on the point of descending, that instant the mouse dived headlong into the snow. The lynx delights in deserted lumber camps, where it is generally certain of a mouse, which, after all, must be a small morsel to such a large animal, yet seemingly a coveted tit-bit, although the hare furnishes its chief subsistence. Like other furred quadrupeds, the lynx is scarcely to be recognized when dressed in its summer and winter robes, the thickness of the latter giving it the appearance of being a much larger animal'; hence, as I have already remarked, the stories of the Indian Devil (puma) may have thus originated. The colour of the pile of the AMERICAN HARE and other mammals that turn grey in winter is brought about most distinctly by climate, a sudden setting in of cold hastening the change, just as it is retarded by a continuance of mild weather at the commencement of winter. The summer or brown coat is rapidly attained in June, and that of winter more gradually, the process of change in the latter being accomplished not only by an actual change in the colouring matter of the hair, but by an additional growth; the denizens of the colder parts getting their winter dress sooner than the hares along the Atlantic coasts, where the climate is milder, whilst the tamed individual well sheltered from cold scarcely changes at all.* This hare is very prolific, breeding often twice a year, and * See an excellent article on this subject by my friend and late brotherofficer, Mr. Welch, Assistant-Professor of Pathology in the Army Medical School.-Proc. of the Zool. Soc. of London, April 8, 1869. producing four to five young at a time; moreover, the latter are said to couple before a twelvemonth. Reference will be made elsewhere to the steady increase of hares in this region, consequent on the destruction of their four-footed enemies, much to the advantage of the great Virginian and Snowy owls, which prey extensively on the animal, keeping it in a constant state of dread, especially during winter, when, in common with other rodents, it seeks to evade the stoop of rapacious birds by diving instantly headlong into the snow, thus escaping them, but ensuring destruction by man, and such animals as the fisher-cat and lynx, who can easily dig it out. The leveret, in common with the young of other members of the family, presents a mark of relationship in having the white spot on the forehead. Like the variable hare of Scotland and Tibet, the above is by no means shy. Its runs are in thick bush, where when pursued it may be heard stamping its feet. The flesh is not savoury, and is highly flavoured with turpentine during winter, when the animal subsists chiefly on conifers. It is also subject to differences in size, the denizens of hilly parts being larger than such as frequent the level forest tracts. The foot of the American hare, like that of nearly all the furred animals, is admirably adapted for progression on snow, inasmuch as not only are the feet bones lengthened, but they admit of much lateral expansion, so that with the intervening fur there is presented an excellent snow-shoe, which enables it to run with ease on the softest surface. I measured several fore footprints three inches, and hind foot impressions four and a half inches in breadth. The nails are long in winter, for the reason that their tips are not subjected to the same amount of friction as in summer. Modifications of structure and appearance, either of advantage to the individual or the reverse, are highly instructive. For example, in comparing the feet of the Moose and Reindeer, it appears strange that nature should have been so considerate Hoofs of Reindeer and Moose compared. 81 towards the latter, and so neglectful of the safety of the elk, and, I may add, the Virginian deer; so evident is this, that it might be fairly questioned if the two latter have always been natives of Canada. Indeed, whether or not they were driven northward by man or by other causes, at all events the defects in regard to their means of progression in winter tell effectually on their powers of escape from man and four-footed foes. Thus considered, we may suppose the reindeer will survive longest, from the fact that its light, hollow, and expansive foot enables it to outstrip its foes over snow, when the other two sink to their haunches. The Virginian deer runs on the hard frozen surface, but is at a great disadvantage in deep soft snow or drifts, where it may be readily captured; indeed, after unusual storms the caribou has been mobbed and killed; but neither are so helpless as the moose, more especially during the spring season, when the frozen surface readily gives way at every step, necessitating great exertion, while G |