670 



southward to Florida and Gulf of Mexico and westward to the plains. 



Breeding Habits. Our American rabbits are not so prolific as 

 the common European species. Some of them produce three or four 

 litters of young in a season, while others seem to breed but twice. 

 The period of gestation is about thirty days, and the breeding season 

 is from April to September or even later. The young are produced 

 in natural depressions under rocks, stumps, or weeds, or in shallow 

 burrows made by other animals. When these are lacking, the female 

 scratches a shallow hole under a bunch of grass or weeds. In the hol- 

 low thus chosen or prepared she makes a nest of leaves or grasses and 

 lines it with fur from her own body. Here the young, numbering 

 from 2 to 7 (averaging in most of our species about 4), are produced. 

 The young are fully furred and have their eyes open when born. The 

 female, while caring for her young, remains in the vicinity of the 

 nest. If enemies approach, she runs away for a short distance ; but 

 when the young are attacked and cry out, she has been known to 

 fight desperately in their defense, and even to vanquish such a for- 

 midable foe as a cat or a snake. When attacking, she jumps and 

 strikes the enemy with her hind feet members capable of a powerful 

 blow, as many a boy who has captured a live rabbit can testify. 



Young rabbits are attended and suckled in the nest for about 

 three weeks, after which they are left to shift for themselves. Since 

 usually succulent food is abundant, this is not a difficult task, and, 

 subject to the vicissitudes of climate and the attacks of natural ene- 

 mies, they soon adapt themselves to an independent life. Apparently 

 the mother takes no further interest in the career of her offspring. 

 The male parent is probably never concerned in the care of the 

 young. 



Food of Rabbits. Rabbits are strict vegetarians, animal food 

 never being eaten by the adults. They eat all sorts of herbage 

 leaves, stems, flowers, and seeds of herbaceous plants and grasses, and 

 leaves, buds, bark, and fruit of woody plants or trees. The most suc- 

 culent kinds, such as young shoots, tender garden vegetables, clover, 

 alfalfa, and fallen ripe fruits, are generally preferred ; but when these 

 fail, any green vegetable growth seems acceptable, and the bark of 

 trees is often resorted to when deep snows cover other supplies or 

 during long summer droughts. 



The common cottontail is fond of frequenting farms and plan- 

 tations and makes its "forms" under brush heaps or in tufts of grass, 

 bunches of weeds, briers, or bushes. It occupies this form, or nest, 

 by day and at night moves about, feeding upon the succulent vege- 

 tables in the farmer's garden, or the clover, turnips, or corn in his 

 fields. In the fall it feasts upon apples, cabbages, turnips, and the 

 like left exposed in garden and orchard, and in winter, w r hen all else 

 is frozen hard or covered with snow, it turns its attention to twigs and 

 bark of woody plants, often doing much damage to young trees. The 

 other species of rabbits have similar habits, varying with the environ- 

 ment of the animals. In the West some of the smaller kinds live 

 largely in the abandoned burrows of prairie dogs, badgers, and other 

 animals. 



