290 BURROWING HARE. 



stock the grounds allotted to it. Vast numbers are 

 silled every year, to be sold in the markets, being- 

 caught in snares, often with the aid of Ferrets, 

 which entering their holes muzzled, drive them 

 forth into the nooses prepared for them. They are 

 also shot for the same purpose, often for mere 

 amusement. In the wild state Rabbits are not 

 polygamous, but pair, and, it is said, remain thus 

 attached for life. The female, when about to deposit 

 her young, forms a separate burrow, and makes a 

 nest for their reception of the fur plucked from her 

 breast. Unlike the young of the Hare, they are 

 blind and naked at birth; but they grow rapidly, 

 soon come abroad, and are in a short time able tcr 

 shift for themselves. 



In the domesticated state, the Rabbit very rarelj 

 exhibits its natural colours, but presents a grea. 

 variety of hues, some being pure white with pink 

 eyes, and therefore true albinoes, others black or 

 melanites. In a breed, much esteemed by fanciers, 

 the ears become greatly elongated, and droop ir 

 various degrees ; but in this state the Rabbit, over- 

 grown and stupified, is as much inferior to the 

 wild breed, as the monstrous cropper is to the ac- 

 tive and truly beautiful rock-dove. Sometimes the 

 hair becomes excessively elongated ; and a breed 

 of this kind formerly existed in the Isle of May in 

 the mouth of the Frith of Forth. 



