268 UPLAND AND MEADOW. 



New Jersey. In the early summers I often find their 

 nests. The litter of four or five are always without 

 their dam, and one only wonders why dogs or rats do 

 not find them oftener. They are always where people 

 are surest to go, if in the woods at all ; and never are 

 so hidden as to have any chance of escape from the 

 schoolboy or his prying cur. Rabbits provoke by their 

 unparalleled stupidity ; they never exercise one whit of 

 ingenuity, but ever and forever trust to luck. Perhaps, 

 in this matter, they resemble many people far more than 

 some of our wiser mammals. 



But I did see an exhibition of pluck and common- 

 sense on the part of a rabbit, this day, and I am half 

 led to cancel what I have written. An eagle has been 

 frequenting the hillside since August — that is, he has 

 been reported to me, from time to time. To-day I saw 

 him for the first. While comfortably resting at the 

 foot of a tall tulip- tree, and leisurely scanning the mead- 

 ows, a rabbit very deliberately came towards me, hop- 

 ping over the short grass, and occasionally looking back, 

 as though in doubt as to whether it was being followed 

 or not. In a moment a shadow crossed the rabbit's 

 path ; and with one great leap, none too quickly made, 

 the terror-stricken creature reached the ditch and 

 crouched in the soft mud underneath the overhanging 

 banks. It was certainly safe, for the time being. Al- 

 most at the same instant down swooped the eagle, and 

 struck the ground within a foot of where the rabbit had 

 last paused, when it made its leap for life. Once on 

 the ground, the eagle gave a searching glance immedi- 

 ately about, and then saw me within ten paces of him. 



