180 WITH. NATTRh' AXD A CAM El! A. 



hank with one in it before the mouth of the burrow 

 luul been opened, and another after the owner liad 

 scratched the earth away. 



Rabbits open their nestin<;- burrows and suckle 

 tlieir young by night, closing them tightly with earth 

 again when they leave them. I had a nest under 

 close observation last spring, and was much interested 

 to tind that its owner scattered some old hay from a 

 sheep foddering station close by over the mould Avith 

 wdiicli she filled the entrance to the l)urrow every 

 time she left it, a procedure which materially lessened 

 its chances of being discovered. 



When the small amount of earth lying patted 

 down flat outside a Rabbit's nest, and the length 

 and diameter of the burrow from whicli it has been 

 excavated are compared, it always appears to me 

 as if the owner must have taken some of the mould 

 right away so as to lessen the conspicuousness of 

 things, but I have not been able to gather any 

 corroborative facts on this 2)oint. 



During the early s})ring great numbers of young 

 Rabbits are drowned in their nests through heavy 

 ranifalls. Accidents of this kind no doubt conti'i- 

 bute largely to keeping their nundjers in tliis country 

 in check, for such is the remarkable fecundity of 

 the aninud that it has been calculated a pair 

 woidd, under the most favourable circumstances 

 ])ossible, produce not less tlian 1,274,810 in the 

 short space of four years. 



I have proved that tliey will increase the 

 length of tlieir nesting bun'ows after young 

 ones have been l)oi'ii, if an injury to the thin crust 

 of earth immediately over them should ap])ear to 

 j('()pardise their safety. A friend of mine, on whose 

 farm a nundjer of Rabl)its l)reed every year, cut 

 the sod innnediately over the n(\st of (jne away in 



