168 THE MINDS AND MANNERS 



diligently gunning throughout six weeks of the year, and 

 actually killing each year about 3,500,000 rabbits! 



200,000 farmers hunting on their own farms, without 

 licenses. 



Predatory animals, such as dogs, cats, skunks, foxes and 

 weasels. 



Predatory birds: hawks, eagles and owls. 



Destructive elements : forest fires, rain, snow and sleet. 



Now, is it not a wonder that any rabbits remain alive hi 

 Pennsylvania? But they are there. They refuse to be exter- 

 minated. Half of them annually outwit all their enemies 

 smart as they are; they avoid death by hunger and cold, and 

 they go on breeding in defiance of wild men, beasts and birds. 

 Is it not wonderful the mentality of the gray rabbit? Again 

 we say the wild animal must think or die. 



In recognizing man's protection and friendship, the rabbit 

 is as quick on the draw as the gray squirrel. In our Zoological 

 Park where we constantly kill hunting cats hi order that our 

 little wild neighbors, the rabbits, squirrels and chipmunks may 

 live, the rabbits live literally in our midst. They hang around 

 the Administration Building, rear and front, as if they owned 

 it; and one evening at sunset I came near stepping out upon a 

 pair that were roosting on the official door-mat on the porch. 

 There are times when they seem annoyed by the passage of 

 automobiles over the service road. 



To keep hungry rabbits from barking your young apple 

 trees in midwinter, spend a dollar or two in buying two or three 

 bushels of corn expressly for them. 



The sentry system of the Prairie-" Dog " in guarding 

 "towns" is very nearly perfect. A warning chatter quickly sends 

 every "dog" scurrying to the mouth of its hole, ready for the 

 dive to safety far below. No ! the prairie-" dog," rattlesnake and 

 burrowing owl emphatically do NOT dwell together in peace 

 and harmony hi the burrow of the "dog." The rodent hates 

 both these interloping enemies, and carefully avoids them. 



