BURROWING HARE. 289 



coarse grass and furze, the latter plant not only af- 

 fording shelter but also food. There it congregates 

 in vast numbers* digging burrows in the soil, in 

 which it reposes, and to which it retreats from dan- 

 ger. Although, on account of the comparative 

 shortness of its legs, it is much inferior to the Hares 

 in speed, it yet runs with great celerity ; and a 

 number of Rabbits scattered over a field, and re- 

 treating, on being alarmed, to their holes, afford a 

 very pleasant sight, some scudding along in trepi- 

 dation, others bounding over the shrubs or herbage, 

 one disappearing here, another stopping a moment 

 to look around before it plunges into its retreat, and 

 perhaps a third peeping from the aperture. Earlj 

 in the morning, when old and young are abroad, 

 they may be seen gamboling in fancied security, 

 for the Rabbit is " full of fun and frolic," and takes 

 pleasure in exercising its faculties. If there are 

 fields and pastures in the neighbourhood, they make 

 excursions among the corn and grass, committing 

 serious devastations when their numbers are great* 

 so that the vicinity of a warren is a great nuisance 

 to the farmer. Foxes, Polecats, Ermines, Weasels, 

 and various birds of prey, destroy considerable 

 numbers ; but as their fecundity is great, they 

 rapidly increase in spite of " natural enemies." It 

 is Man alone, the arch-destroyer, that is capable ol 

 thinning a warren to purpose, or of extirpating it. 

 At the age of six or eight months it is capable of 

 propagating; and as it produces from five to eight 

 several times in the year, it has a tendency to over- 

 T 



