THREE RIVERS AREA — Standing ankle deep in the blackwater bayou, I watch the swamp rabbit. I can hear, in the distance, two beagles hot on its track, but this bottomland creature seems unconcerned.

Rabbit hunting dates back for centuries I suppose, but it is still fun to many East Texas hunters. We have two different types of rabbits in East Texas, the Cottontail and the Swamp Rabbit.

I stood at the edge of a snow-choked evergreen swamp, slowly congealing and thinking moodily how much white-rabbit hunting has in common with ice fishing, another glacial activity in which I find ...