206 LEPORID^— ORYCTOLAGUS 



dry lying in the immediate neighbourhood of good rich 

 pasture. 1 



The large rabbit-burrow, of which Fig. 38 is a plan, 

 was selected for examination on account of its situation in 

 an open field, where, the soil being stony, the rabbits were 

 not likely to tunnel deeply underground. This expectation 

 was realised, no portion of the passages having a greater depth 

 at its floor than 28 inches, and most of the floors lying only 

 about 18 inches below the surface. With two exceptions, the 

 tunnels are drawn in one plane, but the distance in inches from 

 their floors to the surface of the soil is indicated. The average 

 diameter of the tunnels was about 6 inches, increasing at 

 certain situations, so as to reach about 1 foot, in at least one 

 direction, but not being truly circular. 



There were, excluding the two short blind tunnels marked 

 B, B, seven openings to the exterior (A, A). The works were 

 divided into two sections, the neighbouring mouths of which 

 opened into a shallow pit or depression (H) shown near the 

 middle of the plan. This pit had the appearance of having 

 originated through subsidence caused by active digging close to 

 the surface. The four tunnels opening into this pit may at one 

 time have been continuous, and their mouths must certainly 

 have been originally much closer together. While engaged in 

 excavation, a foot of one of the men penetrated and exposed a 

 portion of the blind terminal opening into the pit, and it would 

 have taken very little working on the part of the rabbits to 

 convert this into another mouth. 



The burrow was remarkable for its abrupt, as well as for 

 its gradual turnings ; the former, no doubt, often owed their 

 existence to the difficulty of carrying on the tunnels in the 

 direction originally intended through the hard ground. This 

 is what had probably happened at D, and in other places where 

 short blind alleys or increases of diameter are marked in the 

 plan ; in other cases the chambers may be regarded as incipient 

 tunnels. One or two enlargements (N, N), either terminal or 

 lateral, were obviously sleeping or resting places ; but these were 

 seldom encountered ; one contained two pellets of droppings. 



Two remarkable circular tunnels will be noticed at F, F, and 



1 Simpson, op. cit., 16. 



