222 LEPORID^— ORYCTOLAGUS 



home which appears all the more vigorous by contrast with 

 the previous inactivity. According to Mr Graham, 1 a rabbit, if 

 alarmed on bare ground, and fearing an obstacle in the way of 

 its homeward flight, "stretches out his legs, and lies as 

 motionless as if he were dead " ; but I have not observed this 

 trait. Rabbits are also described as " feigning- death," 2 but 

 that also must be the same "paralysis " in another shape, since 

 it manifestly cannot be an advantage to a highly palatable 

 animal that an enemy should think it dead. 3 



The comparatively long tail of the Rabbit has been alluded 

 to on pages 194 and 201, when comparing this animal with 

 the hares ; and anyone who watches one from behind as it 

 moves about, cannot fail to notice the conspicuous movements 

 of that organ 4 in what is otherwise an inconspicuous animal. 

 It seems to bob up and down as the animal runs about, as if 

 intended to be a kind of lure. This peculiarity was noticed by 

 Charles Darwin, 5 who wrote of it with strict accuracy, that : — 

 "The hare on her form is a familiar instance of concealment 

 through colour ; yet this principle partly fails in a closely allied 

 species, the rabbit, for when running to its burrow, it is made 

 conspicuous to the sportsman, and no doubt to all beasts of prey, 

 by its upturned white tail." Mr Alfred Russel Wallace goes a 

 step further, believing that the tail is a "signal flag of danger." 

 ' ' When disturbed or alarmed it makes for its burrow, and the white 

 upturned tails of those in front serve as guides and signals to 

 those more remote from home, to the young and the feeble: and 

 thus, each following the one or two before it, all are able with the 

 least possible delay to regain a place of comparative safety." 6 

 Mr Wallace's ingenious theory was hailed with much delight, 

 and has given pleasure to many naturalists, field and closet. 

 It has, however, been subjected to a good deal of criticism, for 

 apart entirely from the fact that rabbits probably do not 

 approach each other at all by sight if at any distance, it is 



1 Op. cit. supra, 210. 



2 See J. R. B. Masefield, Field, 8th April 191 1, 703. 



3 J. L. Bonhote tells me that when a rabbit is frightened its heart beats 

 slower, which observation seems to throw light on the "paralysis" question. 



4 "The bucks carry their tails higher, so that the white shows much more con- 

 spicuously when they are moving." — Butler in Millais, iii., 50. 



5 The Descent of Man, ed. ii., 1889, 542. 



6 Darwinism, etc., ed. ii., 1889, 218. 



