THE RABBIT. 585 
follow, and in a very few minutes the frightened Rabbits have come again into the light 
of day, and have recommenced their interrupted pastimes. 
Few animals are so easily startled as the Rabbit, and with perfect good reason. For 
their enemies are found in so many directions and under such insidious guises, that they 
are well justified in taking every possible precaution for their safety. Sundry rapacious 
birds are very fond of young Rabbits, and swoop down unexpectedly from some unknown 
aérial region before the doomed creature can even comprehend its danger. Stoats and 
weasels make dreadful havoc in a warren, and even the domestic cat is sadly apt to turn 
poacher if a well-stocked warren should happen to be within easy distance of her home. 
Foxes are very crafty in the pursuit of young Rabbits, and dig them out of the ground 
in a very ingenious and expeditious manner ; while the common hedgehog is but too apt 
to indulge its carnivorous appetite with an occasional Rabbit. 
The burrows in which the Rabbit lives are extremely irrecular in their construction, 
and often communicate with each other to a remarkable extent. 
From many of its foes, the Rabbit escapes by diving suddenly into its burrow; but 
there are some animals, such as the stoat, weasel, and ferret, which follow it into its 
subterranean abode, and slay it within the precincts of its own home. Dogs, especially 
RABBIT.—Lepus cuniculus. 
those of the small terrier breeds, will often force their way into the Rabbit burrows, and 
have sometimes paid the penalty of their life for their boldness. The Rabbit has been 
seen to watch a terrier dog safely into one of the burrows, and then to fill up the 
entrance so effectually that the invader has not been able to retrace his steps, and has 
perished miserably beneath the surface of the ground. 
When the female Rabbit is about to become a mother, she quits the ordinary burrows, 
and digs a special tunnel for the purpose of sheltering her young family during their first 
few weeks of life. At the extremity of the burrow she places a large quantity of dried 
herbage, intermixed with down which she plucks from her own body, so as to make a soft 
and warm bed for the expected occupants. The young Rabbits are about seven or eight 
in number, and are born without hair and with their eyes closed. Not until they have 
attained the age of ten or twelve days are they able to open their eyelids and to see the 
world into which they have been brought. 
When domesticated, the female Rabbit is sometimes apt to eat her own young, a 
practice which has been considered as incurable. It seems, however, that the Rabbit 
acts in this apparently unnatural manner from very natural causes. It has long been the 
custom to deprive domestic Rabbits of water, on the plea that in a wild state they never 
