178 PHEASANTS 



As to the all-devouring rabbit, nothing 

 is safe from his attentions until it is 

 firmly established, for curiosity leads 

 him to attack anything and everything 

 newly planted. This annoying trait 

 seems common to all rabbits, but, at 

 other times different breeds of rabbits 

 seem to have widely varying tastes in 

 vegetation, sparing a plant in one district, 

 and utterly destroying it in another. 

 Thus you may chance on occasion to see 

 rabbits among a splendid undergrowth 

 of holly, but it is useless arguing from 

 this that young hollies and rabbits do 

 well together, for in some other part 

 of the country one unsuspected family 

 of rabbits may well suffice to destroy 

 every holly you plant. Those plants 

 then that are given the credit of being 

 in any degree rabbit-proof can only be 

 safely considered as enjoying a large im- 

 munity from their destructive attentions 

 once they are firmly established. In 

 any event a multitude of rabbits in a 

 wood is never conducive to the welfare 



