THE FACE OF THE FIELDS 17 



of the fox and hounds'? or at most from two 

 cases — the hen and the hawk? And are not these 

 cases far from typical ? Fox and hound are un- 

 usually matched, both of them are canines, and 

 so closely related that the dog has been known 

 to let a she-fox go unharmed at the end of an ex- 

 citing hunt. Suppose the fox were a defenseless 

 rabbit, what of fear and terror then ? 



Ask any one who has shot in the rabbity fields 

 of southern New Jersey. The rabbit seldom runs 

 in blind terror. He is soft-eyed, and timid, and 

 as gentle as a pigeon, but he is not defenseless. 

 A nobler set of legs was never bestowed by nature 

 than the little cotton-tail's. They are as wings 

 compared with the deformities that bear up the 

 ordinary rabbit hound. With winged legs, pro- 

 tecting color, a clear map of the country in his 

 head, — its stumps, rail-piles, cat-brier tangles, and 

 narrow rabbit-roads, — with all this as a handicap, 

 Bunny may well run his usual cool and winning 

 race. The balance is just as even, the chances 

 quite as good, and the contest as interesting, to 

 him as to Reynard. 



I have seen a rabbit squat close in his form 

 and let a hound pass yelping within a few feet of 



