LONG EARS AftD THEIR KIN. 85 



CHAPTER XIV. 

 LONG EARS AND THEIR KIN. * 



1. ANOTHER group of the rodents includes the rabbits 

 and the hares. Their jaws and teeth are shaped for gnaw- 

 ing, like the squirrel's, but their food consists mainly of 

 tender plants and the bark of trees. The only harm they 

 do is when they get into the vegetable-garden and feast 

 upon the cabbage and lettuce, or when, in winter, they 

 are driven by hunger to gnaw the bark from young fruit- 

 trees. 



2. Rabbits live in communities, and have their homes 

 in burrows which they dig in the ground. The nests are 

 separate, but the burrows open into one another, and a rab- 

 bit village, or " warren," often contains hundreds of pas- 

 sages, with great numbers of doors opening into the outer 

 air. A rabbit entering any one of these doors easily finds 

 his way to his own nest. 



3. Both rabbits and hares are timid animals, and they 

 have no means of defense against their enemies. Their 

 only safety is in flight. To enable them to detect the 

 presence of a foe, they are furnished with large, sensitive 

 ears, and they can hear the least cracking of a twig or the 

 faintest rustle of a blade of dry grass. The silent creep- 

 ing of a weasel, the stealthy tread of a cat, or the noiseless 

 flight of the owl fail to make an impression which the 

 large ears can gather in, and this harmless clover-nibbler 

 falls a prey to these savage foes. 



4. Rabbits increase with great rapidity. It is estimated 

 that, if unmolested, a single pair of rabbits in four years 

 would produce 1,250,000. If not kept down by cats, dogs, 

 weasels, owls, hawks, and foxes, they would soon overrun 

 a country. Rabbits were introduced into New Zealand, 



