Rabbits 93 



look directly at him (for he is quick to catch your eye) 

 down he'll go, and soon will he be joined in his feed 

 by others. One meal is taken in the early morning, 

 another at four, and a third about dusk ; that is 

 speaking roughly, of course, for where rabbits are 

 plentiful they are popping in and out all day. The 

 extent of their wanderings largely depends upon the 

 weather. After storm or heavy rain you may walk 

 the rough meadows, or beat bracken and gorse for 

 them in vain ; while in a windy evening, when they are 

 not so quick to hear or scent danger, they are easily 

 stalked indeed. In some respects the rabbit is like 

 the \>strich. He does not exactly bury his head in 

 the sand ; but if you take him by surprise in the middle 

 of a field, his one idea of concealment is to stretch full 

 length on the ground, his ears thrown back, and with 

 nothing to differentiate him from a big grey stone 

 except his eyes, in which it is impossible to mistake 

 the look of pain and alarm. But, as you near him 

 from the direction of his home, he screws himself 

 about for flight. If he is allowed to make for his 

 burrow, he does not go off in a direct line, but follows 

 the twists and turnings of his ' run,' for the field is all 

 laid out in rabbit roads, and when he is driven out of 

 them he seems lost. The poacher and the gamekeeper 

 note these runs with equal care, for the loop of wire 

 with which so many rabbits are taken is so placed as 

 to hang over the new-trod way. The rabbit is not 

 very intelligent. Believing himself hidden in a tuft of 



