THE WILD RABBET. 3 1 5 



not venture far from his habitation ; whereas the 

 female goes at once to feed without fear*. 



As these animals cannot easily articulate sounds, 

 and as they live together, under the ground, in great 

 numbers, they have a very peculiar method of giv- 

 ing alarm. When danger is threatened, they thump 

 on the earth with one of their hinder feet ; and thus 

 produce a sound that can be heard a great way by 

 by animals that happen to be near the surface. 



Captain George Cartwright has remarked of some 

 English Rabbets, which he took out with him to 

 Labrador, that they had a " singular way of chewing 

 their cud, if it may be so called, for they very often 

 ate their own dungf." 



Female Rabbets breed five or six times in the 

 year ; they go with young about thirty days, and 

 produce from six to ten young ones at a litter. In 

 consequence of the attempts which the male some- 

 times makes to devour his offspring, the doe fre- 

 quently kindles at a distance from the warren. She 

 scratches a small zig-zag burrow about two feet 

 deep ; and at the bottom of this, prepares a warm 

 and comfortable bed for her offspring, by plucking 

 the hair from her own body, and mixing it with 

 grass. The young ones come into the world per- 

 fectly blind, and with their ears closed ; and they 



* Buffon par Sonnini, xxiv. p. 239* note, 

 f Cart wright's Journal on the coast of Labrador. 



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