84 RODENTIA 



BABBIT. 

 LEPUS CUNICULUS L. 



At the present time the Eabbit is perhaps the most 

 ubiquitous of all our mammals, abounding alike on the islands 

 of the Forth, and the dunes by the shores of the firths and 

 estuaries; in the fields and woodlands of the plains; and 

 among the rocks and pastures of the hills, where it lives at 

 almost all elevations. From Sibbald's statement (quoted 

 below) we may infer that it was also common and widely 

 distributed in the district in the seventeenth century, though 

 probably much less so than now ; but I am inclined to think 

 that between that time and the early part of the present 

 century there was little if any increase in its numbers, except 

 perhaps in a few localities. According to Don, it was rare 

 in Forfarshire in 1813 (Headrick's "Agriculture" of the 

 County, App., p. 38). A combination of circumstances, 

 however, among which the destruction of its natural enemies 

 has probably not been the least important, has since favoured 

 its increase, and now it can only be kept within bounds by 

 systematic trapping and snaring. 



On 23rd May 1891 I found a Eabbit's nest at the foot of 

 Auchinoon hill, in the parish of Midcalder, in an exceptional 

 position. It was placed in the centre of a tuft of coarse grass, 

 in what might have been a hare's "form," without the 

 semblance of a burrow. In it were five young ones blind 

 and naked enveloped in a mass of warm fur. 



From Boece's "Description of Scotland," we learn that in 

 the early part of the sixteenth century the islands of the 

 Forth were "verie full of conies" (Holinshed's translation, 

 1805 edition, p. 13); and in Stuart's "Priory of the Isle of 

 May," page xl, reference is made to a deed, by which in 1519 



