352 BIRDS, BEASTS, AND FISHES 



white disappearing down a dark "eye." At night, too, those 

 who are not nursing go forth to feed, never straying far from 

 their burrows even then — two fields' distance at most — 

 returning, however, soon after dawn to their "eyes." If 

 the night turn wet or cold, they return earlier; and if it 

 be cold or wet at evening, they generally lie up all night, 

 and do not go out at all. 



As the corn, and roots, and beans grow sufficiently high to 

 afford cover, they leave their burrows and live in the fields ; 

 especially fond are they of bean-fields. In these fields they 

 make forms after the manner of a hare, and they will elude 

 a dog, if they know where their burrows are, for a distance 

 of one or two hundred yards. It will take a very swift dog 

 to catch them, unless they get confused or baffied, which 

 sometimes occurs. I have heard that for a hundred yards 

 they have outrun greyhounds, but I never saw such a 

 race. 



Their food much resembles that of the hare — young 

 clover, young wheat and barley, sow-thistles, red-weed 

 (poppies), turnips, beet, cabbage, and young greens and 

 salads, and in hard weather hay. 



But a rabbit shows the extent of his damage, for they 

 do not feed far from their burrows, and you can see what 

 they have eaten and what they have killed by their poisonous 

 excreta. 



Warren rabbits are larger and more sociable than hedge- 

 rabbits. They seem to congregate more, and breed in 

 colonies. Their burrows go deeper into the sand, some 

 nine or ten yards, and they go straighter in. They eat 

 marram and rushes. Often, when they are killed, you find 

 sand in their lips, and it seems as though they use their 

 mouths as well as their heads in burrowing. Indeed, you 

 may see them washing their faces like cats, but you may 

 also see hares doing the same. They are a hardy crew those 

 " warrant rabbits," but a family of which I have but little 

 experience. 



