THE RABBIT 



CHAPTER I 



NATURAL HISTORY OF THE RABBIT 



As a ' beast of warren ' the rabbit has been well 

 known in England for many centuries. Whether it 

 is indigenous to this country, or whether, like the 

 pheasant, the swan, and the fallow deer, it was intro- 

 duced by the Romans, as some have asserted, is a 

 question which, for want of direct evidence, will 

 perhaps never be satisfactorily settled. We have it 

 on the authority of the Yorkshire antiquary Whitaker 

 that we are indebted to Roman enterprise, not only 

 for the introduction of the rabbit, but also for the 

 ferret, which they employed to hunt it ; and the Latin 

 names for these animals, cuniculus and furectus, both 

 of which are described by Pliny, ^ give some colour to 

 the assertion. 



From what is stated by Greek and Latin authors, 



' Hist. Nat. viii. 55. 



