216 LEPORID^— ORYCTOLAGUS 



developed, and the stops are sometimes placed so near a 

 main burrow that every member of the colony must know of 

 its existence, especially on rocky ground where the noise 

 attending excavation must be considerable. 



Few naturalists seem to have seen a doe at work closing 

 her nursery, and there has recently been some discussion x as 

 to exactly what method she employs. Daniel 2 and William 

 Bingley 3 stated that the burrow is closed "by means of her 

 hinder parts " ; Sir Harry Johnston, that the mother digs with 

 her fore and flings backwards with her hind feet ; but it 

 was left to Mr C. J. Davis 4 to describe the efforts of a domestic 

 rabbit to close the entrance of her nesting-box. This she 

 did by flinging sawdust against it through her widespread hind 

 legs, which, be it noted, is the manner of digging in dogs. 

 There is probably a good deal of variation in method, but none 

 of those mentioned above would explain the firm and deliberately 

 careful manner in which the hole is usually closed. 5 It seems 

 likely that the most correct account is that of Mr Hugh 

 Wormald, 6 written from observation of a domesticated wild 

 rabbit. This doe used to turn her back to the nursery com- 

 partment of her hutch, and (with her fore feet) scrape all the 

 available grass, sand, and earth into a pile in front of the hole ; 

 she then pushed the collected material into the aperture with 

 her fore feet until she had the hole closed. At first she kept 

 the young completely blocked in all day and only visited them 

 by night. When they could see and run a little she used to 

 open the hole in the evenings and let them out one at a time to 

 suckle, after which she blocked them in again. When they 

 grew bigger the doe would go to the open door of the nursery, 

 stamp and give a squeaking grunt, when all the young would 

 run to her to be fed. 



A somewhat similar description is that of Mr J. P. Nunn, 7 who 

 wrote of two does of the lop-eared domestic breed that, having 

 first scraped the earth up into little heaps, they arched their 

 backs, whereby they got their hind feet nearly up to the heaps ; 



1 Initiated by the late Henry Scherren, Field,2yth November 1909, 975. 

 * Op. cit., i., 488. 3 P. 316. i Field, 4th December 1909, 1049. 



6 As shown by the fact that in wet weather the soil moved by a doe rabbit becomes 

 worked into lumps (Jones). 



6 Fields 4th December 1909, 1049. 7 Journ. cit., 7th March 1908, 410. 



