

RABBIT. — Lepus nuniculus. 



Resembling the hare in general appearance and in many of its habits, the 

 Rabbit is i*eadi]y distingnished from that animal by its smaller dimensions, its 

 different colonr, its shorter and uniforndy brown ears, and its shor ter limbs. 



The Rabbit is one of the most familiar of Britisli qnadrnpeds, having taken 

 firm possession of the soil into which it has been imported, and multiplied to so 

 great an extent that its nnmbers can hardly be kept within proper bounds without 

 annual and wholesale massacres. As it is more tameable than the hare, it has 

 long been ranked among the chief of domestic pets, and has been so modified 

 by careful management that it has developed itself into many permanent varieties, 

 which would be considered as diff'erent species by one who saw them for the first 

 time. The little brown short-furred wild Rabbit of the warren bears hardly less 

 resemblance to the long-haired, silken-furred Angola variety, than the Angola to 

 the pure lop-eared variety with its enormously lengthened ears and its heavy 

 dewlap. 



Rabbits are terribly destructive animals, as is too well knovA^n to all residents 

 near a warren, and are sad depredators in field, garden, and plantation, destroying 

 in very wantonness hundreds of plants which they do not care to eat. They do 

 very great damage to young trees, delighting in stripping them of the tender 

 bark as far as they can reach while standing on their hind feet. 



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