GNAWING ANIMALS — RODENTS 155 



Both rabbits and hares are mesmerised by the 

 approach of stoat or weasel, and will sit with closed 

 eyes and calmly submit themselves to the slanghterer. 

 But a remarkable courage, born of mother love, will 

 prompt the doe rabbit to turn on the would-be 

 murderer of her young ones. 



Fear will sometimes prompt a rabbit to take to the 

 water, but this means of escape is more often resorted 

 to by the hare. 



Bunny, as so many of us know to our cost, will 

 eat almost anything that is green. Mr. Harting, in 

 his monograph on the rabbit in the " Fin, Fur and 

 Feather ^^ sei-ies, gives a very useful list of shrubs 

 which may be grown as covert and are said not to 

 be eaten by rabbits. One plant on the list, however, 

 Pernettija miucronata, has suffered a severe pruning 

 by rabbits in our garden. 



In hard weather rabbits will eat the bark and 

 shoots of laurels and privet, which are generally 

 regarded as poisonous to most animals ; the young 

 shoots of holly and the bark of hazel, ash, bircli, 

 Scot\s pine and young oak are unmercifully consumed. 

 They turn the heart of any gardener to stone by 

 nibbling- the growing shoots out of his choicest plants 

 and rooting up others. Pinks and carnations are eaten 

 to the ground first, then sweet Williams, wall flowers, 

 and a variety of other plants are attacked. In 

 Epping Forest the holly bushes look as if they had 

 been regularly clipped to a height of about eighteen 

 inches above the ground. This pruning is effected 

 by the rabbits eating all the young holly shoots 

 within their reach. 



