CHAP. vii. THE RABBIT. 



it moving about by moonlight. He often watched the 

 rabbits going into their burrows at sunset ; and he 

 also observed them emerging from them a little 

 before sunrise. But there was one thing about the 

 rabbit that perplexed and puzzled him. It did not 

 emit any cry, such as the hare does ; but he often 

 heard the rabbit tap-tap in a particular manner. How 

 was this noise caused ? He endeavoured to ascertain 

 the cause by close observation. 



Early one morning, when he was lying under a 

 whin bush, about twenty yards from the foot of a 

 sandy knoll, where there were plenty of rabbits' holes, 

 he was startled by hearing a loud tap-tapping almost 

 close to where he lay ! The streaks of day were just 

 beginning to appear. Parting the bush gently aside, 

 and looking through it, he observed a rabbit thud- 

 thudding its hind feet upon the ground close to the 

 mouth of another rabbit's hole. 



Edward continued to watch the rabbit. After he 

 had finished his tapping at the first hole, he went 

 along the hillock and began tap-tapping at another. 

 He went on again. He would smell the ground about 

 the hole first, and would sometimes pass without tap- 

 ping. At last he got to a hole where his progress 

 was stopped. After he had given only two or three 

 thuds, out rushed a full-grown rabbit, and flew at the 

 disturber of the peace. He rushed at him with such 

 fury that they both rolled headlong down hill, until 

 they reached the bottom. 



