698 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



By-and-by the weasel, baffled for a few minutes, comes up behind. 

 Instantly the rabbit slips over the bank outside and down the ditch 

 for a dozen yards, and there enters the " bury " again. The weasel 

 follows, gliding up the bank with a motion not unlike that of the 

 snake; for his body and neck are long and slender, and his legs short. 

 Apparently he is not in haste, but rather lingers over the scent. This 

 is repeated five or six times, till the whole length of the hedgerow 

 has been traversed sometimes up and down again. The chase may 

 be easily observed by any one who will keep a little in the back- 

 ground. Although the bank be tenanted by fifty other rabbits, past 

 whose hiding-place the weasel must go, yet they scarcely take any 

 notice. One or two, whom he has approached too closely, bolt out 

 and in again; but as a mass the furry population remain quiet, as if 

 perfectly aware that they are not yet marked out for slaughter. At 

 last, having exhausted the resources of the bank, the rabbit rushes 

 across the field to a hedgerow, perhaps a hundred yards away. Here 

 the wretched creature seems to find a difficulty in obtaining admit- 

 tance. Hardly has he disappeared in a hole before he comes out 

 again, as if the inhabitants of the place refused to give him shelter. 

 For many animals have a strong tribal feeling, and their sympathy, 

 like that of man in a savage state, is confined within their special set- 

 tlement. With birds it is the same; rooks, for instance, will not 

 allow a strange pair to build in their trees, but drive them off with 

 relentless beak, tearing down the half-formed nest, and taking the 

 materials to their own use. The sentiment, " If Jacob take a wife of 

 the daughters of Heth, what good shall my life do me ?" appears to 

 animate the breasts of gregarious creatures of this kind. Rooks in- 

 termarry generation after generation; and if a black lover brings 

 home a foreign bride, they are forced to build in a tree at some 

 distance. Near large rookeries several such outlying colonies may 

 be seen. 



The rabbit, failing to find a cover, hides in the grass and dry 

 rushes ; but across the meadow, stealing along the furrow, comes the 

 weasel; and, shift his place how he may, in the end, worn out and 

 weary, bunny succumbs, and the sharp teeth meet in the neck behind 

 the ear, severing the vein. Ofter in the end the rabbit runs to earth 

 in a hole which is a cul-de-sac, with his back toward the pursuer. 

 The weasel, unable to get at the poll, which is his desire, will mangle 

 the hinder parts in a terrible manner as will the civilized ferret 

 under similar conditions. Now and then the rabbit, scratching and 

 struggling, fills the hole in the rear with earth, and so at the last 

 moment chokes off his assailant and finds safety almost in the death- 

 agony. In the woods, once the rabbit is away from the " buries," 

 the chase really does resemble a hunt ; from furze-bush to bracken, 

 from fern to rough grass, round and round, backward, doubling, to 

 and fro, and all in vain. At such times, eager for blood, the weasel 



