176 HANDBOOK OF NATURE STUDY 



wolves and foxes, wildcats and lynxes, bloodthirsty weasels, 

 hawks and owls, and even large snakes, all seek to take 

 Brer Rabbit's life. 



10. In spite of all, the gray rabbit holds on, and has even 

 increased with the settlement of the country. How is he 

 protected ? His color blends with that of the ground, the 

 dead grass, or the brush. He is small, and hides where 

 most of his enemies cannot follow. He is always on the 

 alert ; the long ears perceive the slightest suspicious sound. 

 Rabbits are very prolific. In northern states young are 

 produced three times in one summer, each litter consisting 

 of from five to seven tiny cottontails. Their food is almost 

 everywhere abundant, and although many of the young 

 fall a prey to their enemies, quite a number survive. The 

 settlement of the country has reduced the number of their 

 natural enemies. 



Do you not think that a rabbit suddenly appearing before 

 you, and whisking into the brush, is a pretty sight ? How 

 lonely the woods would be without birds, chipmunks, squir- 

 rels, and rabbits ! Would you have the heart to take the 

 mother from young animals, and cruelly starve the little 

 ones to death ? I know you would not. But that is pre- 

 cisely what you do, if you hunt in the season when birds 

 and other animals have young. It is not wrong to hunt 

 for sport, and use the flesh or skin of the animal taken. 

 Still, I believe that it is much more pleasant and interest- 

 ing to ramble through woods and marsh with sharp eyes, a 

 field-glass, and a kodak, than with a murderous shotgun or 

 rifle. But the boy or man who kills anything and every- 

 thing, without a good reason for it, is a brute. Unless 

 animals are decidedly injurious, they have a right to live. 

 The earth was not made exclusively for man. Let not 

 nature's ruler degrade himself to be nature's hangman ! 



The White Rabbit, or Northern Hare (Lepus Americanus), 



