In Ellesmere Land they are reported to be extraordinarily numerous at times in certain little valleys, and the fur traders on the coast south of the Yukon Delta informed me of similar gatherings in spring on gently sloping hillsides in that region. Photographs taken in Ellesmere Land show many of these hares scattered over a small area, each crouched in a compact form and all heading in the same direction to face the wind. Such gatherings, at least those in Alaska, occur during the mating period, after which the animals scatter over the area they occupy.
An account of the big northern hares would be incomplete without reference to the white-tailed jack rabbit, the largest of all American hares and a near relative of the arctic species. It attains a weight of twelve pounds or more and appears like a giant of its kind. It has longer legs than the arctic hare and a longer tail. In summer it is grayish or buffy, with a conspicuous pure white tail. Throughout most of its range in winter it becomes pure white except the black tips to the ears, but near the southern border the change to white is not so complete as in the North. The distribution of the white-tailed jack rabbit extends from Minnesota to the Cascade Mountains and from the Saskatchewan River, in Alberta, south to southern Colorado.
Arctic hares have from one to seven young in a litter each spring. Owing to the climatic conditions under which they exist, it is doubtful if more than a single litter is born each year.
The manner in which animal life adapts itself to its environment is beautifully illustrated by the arctic hares of north Greenland and Ellesmere Land. There the conditions are rigorously arctic and continuous winter night extends through a period of several months. In all this region the scanty and dwarfed vegetation is covered with snow and ice the larger part of the year. The hares living there are, with little question, a geographic race of those living farther south, but have developed into larger and stronger animals, with heavier fur, to meet the sterner conditions of life.
Their claws are much larger and heavier, so that they may dig the snow from the hidden herbage. Most marvelous of all, the anterior ends of both jaws are lengthened and the incisors set so that they project and meet at an acute angle, thus serving, tweezerlike, more readily to pick out the lowly vegetation imbedded in the snow.
In most parts of their range arctic hares are scarce and rarely encountered. Each winter during my residence on the coast of Bering Sea the Eskimos killed only a few individuals. They were shy and watchful and the hunters sometimes followed one on snowshoes all day over the tundra without securing it. In the high North they appear to be more numerous in places, judging from the number killed for food by members of polar expeditions. Their flesh is excellent, but a little dry. Their natural enemies include wolves, foxes, weasels, gyrfalcons, and snowy owls, all of which share their desolate haunts and join in destroying them.
The winter skins of arctic hares have a beautiful snowy white pelage, which make warm garments and sleeping robes for the North, but are too delicate to withstand much service.
THE COTTONTAIL RABBIT’S TRACK
The large set of four tracks at the top gives the maximum possible of detail, which is very rarely seen. The lower figure at the right-hand corner is a typical track (tt). At the set marked “sitting” the tail mark is seen, and in this only are the fore-feet tracks ahead of the hind tracks. The cottontail has five toes on the front feet, but only four ever show in the track ([see page 510]).