168 THE GUN: AFIELD AND AFLOAT 



ground readily enough when hard pressed, and will then 

 have recourse to some convenient drain-pipe to secure 

 safety from its enemies ; it will moreover, if much 

 persecuted, make frequent use of some such shelter. 



The rabbit differs in several respects from the brown 

 hare, in both structure and habit. On placing the two 

 rodents side by side the most casual observer cannot fail 

 to notice that the rabbit has much shorter ears and 

 hinder limbs. Moreover, as is well known, the rabbit is 

 a burrowing animal and of gregarious habits, spending a 

 goodly portion of the day underground. This indicates 

 that the hare trusts mainly to its colour, and the rabbit 

 to the shelter of its underground home for safety against 

 numerous enemies. Another important distinction con- 

 sists in the fact that, as previously remarked, the 

 young rabbit comes into the world sightless and almost 

 naked. Leverets at birth are deposited upon the surface 

 of the ground ; but the doe rabbit brings forth her 

 young in a warm underground nest of fine grass 

 and of down plucked from her body. This nest is very 

 frequently situated in a short shallow burrow scratched 

 out for the occasion in some fallow or other cultivated 

 field, in which exposed situation, by the way, the young 

 are too often exposed to the unkind attentions of fox, 

 prowling sheep-dog, or other hungry enemy. 



The doe rabbit will commence to breed when it is six 

 months old, and many have about six litters of young, 

 numbering five to eight, in a year; in fact, given mild 

 winters they will continue to breed ten months out 

 of the twelve. 



Naturally, in the case of animals so remarkably prolific, 

 it is not a difficult matter to insure a due sufficiency of 

 rabbits for all practical sporting purposes on ground of 



