NATURAL HISTORY OF THE RABBIT 21 



knocked it over before it could get out of the way. 

 The discomfited bird, with a hoarse croak, scrambled 

 on to its feet and hastily took flight. 



Nor are these exceptional cases. Similar instances 

 of the courageous behaviour of rabbits in defence of 

 their young have been from time to time recorded.^ 



In one of the instances above related it will be 

 observed that the parent rabbit, after driving away a 

 stoat, carried off her young one in her mouth. It is, 

 perhaps, not generally known that both hares and 

 rabbits transport their young in this way, just as cats 

 will carry their kittens, or dogs their puppies. Many 

 such instances have come under our notice, more 

 often in the case of hares, which convey their young 

 in this manner, when they have been discovered, to a 

 place of greater safety. 



It is somewhat curious that, notwithstanding the 

 fierce way in which both rabbits and hares will defend 

 their young, they seldom attempt to bite anyone 

 when taken from a net, or on being picked up when 

 wounded by shot. The writer in twenty-five years' 

 experience, during which time he must have shot and 

 seen others shoot thousands of rabbits, has never 



' See Couch, Illitstralions of Itistinct, p. 231 ; The Essex 

 Naturalist, vol. ii. (1888), p. 71 ; The Field, September 8, 1888, 

 September 20, 1890, November 7, 1891, May 7, 1892, Octo- 

 ber 7, 1893, 3-nd August 14, 1897. 



