Snowshoe rabbits are largely nocturnal or crepuscular in habit. They are secretive and slip away quietly at the least threat of danger. Persons often live for years in localities where snowshoe rabbits are abundant without seeing a live individual. Those that are seen ordinarily have been startled from their forms at midday, or surprised while feeding on clover along a highway in the early morning. More commonly they are seen crossing a road in the lights of an automobile. Tracks, easily found after a fresh snowfall, give some indication of their numbers in any locality. Little information is available on the fluctuations of numbers of snowshoe rabbits in Washington. Floyd Thornton, a trapper living at Forks, Clallam County, states that they were numerous in 1924, scarce in 1930-31, and fairly common in 1938-39. More rabbits are seen shortly after the breeding season than at other times of the year. From April 8-10, 1941, I saw none on a highway extending about 100 miles along the west coast of the Olympic Peninsula, but on June 4-5 here counted 3 dead on the road and saw 3 running across it. One was about one-third grown and another two-thirds grown. [Illustration: FIG. 127. Distribution of the snowshoe hare in Washington. A. _Lepus americanus washingtonii._ B. _Lepus americanus cascadensis._ C. _Lepus americanus columbiensis._ D. _Lepus americanus pineus._] The snowshoe rabbits are classed as game animals in Washington but few people hunt them. Their winter food includes buds and needles of hemlock, Douglas fir, and probably other evergreens. Annuals, grasses, and shrubs, as well as Douglas fir needles, are eaten in the summer. Snowshoe rabbits do some damage by eating the bark of trees and the boughs of newly planted evergreens. Together with rodents they are responsible for serious damage to plantations of Douglas fir and hemlock on the Olympic Peninsula. At least in summer, they are heavily parasitized by fleas and ticks and may in addition carry tularemia, or rabbit fever. Scheffer (1933: 77-78) found that the young were born from May 5 to July 4 in the Puget Sound area and that there were from 2 to 5, usually 5 per litter. =Lepus americanus washingtonii= Baird _Lepus washingtonii_ Baird, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, 7:333, 1855. [_Lepus americanus_] var. _Washingtoni_ J. A. Allen, Proc. Boston Soc. Nat. Hist., 17:434, February 17, 1875. _Lepus americanus Washingtoni_ True, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., 7:601, 1885. _Type._--Obtained by G. Suckley at Steilacoom, Pierce County, Washington, on April 1, 1854; type in United States National Museum.