ioo THE RABBIT 



Rabbits are less given to roaming over wide areas than hares. 

 From the burrows outwards the rabbits clear almost everything 

 edible before them, thus making sure of a full " look out," a velvety 

 lawn, and supply of tender herbage. Nevertheless, rabbits will go 

 a long distance for feeding on any special food-crop they delight in, 

 such as a field of carrots, parsnips, parsley, turnips, swedes, winter 

 tares, clovers, etc. Indeed, they devour almost every description 

 of agricultural crop, including, besides those named under hares, 

 beans, peas, .and potatoes, the injury inflicted being most marked 

 in dry seasons, the stunting of the plants favouring their depreda- 

 tions. Though having less aversion to wild grasses than hares, the 

 rabbits so foul pastures that neither cattle nor sheep eat herbage 

 on land tainted excessively by them. This chiefly occurs near the 

 burrows, on borders of woods and plantations, from whence the 

 rabbits come out to browse on meadows and pastures, eating off the 



FIG. 64. THE RABBIT. 



herbage and also closely cropping cereal and other crops for a con- 

 siderable distance from the boundaries. 



Rabbits injure young plantations by nibbling the shoots and 

 gnawing the stems of the trees and shrubs, always interfering with 

 the growth and often destroying the plants : thorn, acacia, ash, 

 broom, gorse, hazel, and hornbeam, with larch, Austrian pine, 

 Scots pine, and Norway spruce being generally preferred. Even in 

 wooded districts few species of conifers or broad-leaved plants 

 escape nibbling and gnawing by rabbits in severe winters, while 

 young plantations are soon ruined where rabbits are numerous and 

 with snow on the ground for several weeks. On sandy land in 

 moors and hilly districts where woods occur here and there, rabbits 

 overrun recently formed plantations, nibble the young shoots 

 and girdle the stems of nearly all trees, burrowing in certain 

 places and damaging the roots. 



