THE COMMON RABBIT 175 



its numbers down, the rabbit has never been a 

 serious nuisance, though it certainly does a good 

 deal of harm in some districts, what with eating 

 the young grain, barking small trees, etc., but we 

 have all heard the result that attended its 

 introduction into Australia ! There it increased 

 so rapidly in the dry, favourable climate that 

 it became a perfect plague. Happily our more 

 humid conditions prevent " all the year round " 

 breeding ; besides, we have plenty of foxes, stoats, 

 cats, and badgers to lend willing assistance in 

 keeping it down. It is a strong point in favour 

 of the badger that it often digs out and devours 

 young rabbits, and should form an additional 

 reason for protecting this much-persecuted animal. 

 In southern Shropshire we have plenty of 

 badgers, and their assistance in keeping the rabbits 

 within reasonable limits is invaluable. In the 

 spring time, when the old doe rabbits begin house- 

 hunting, the badgers rouse themselves to activity 

 (though they do not actually hibernate, they lie 

 up a good deal during bad weather), and coming 

 forth from their fastnesses search far and wide 

 for food. They range through the woods and 

 over the fields, their broad pad-marks being found 

 many miles from the nearest sett, and with their 

 wonderfully keen noses they discover a great 

 number of the early nests. It matters not how 

 carefully the doe has covered the young ones 

 up in their snug nest of wool from her own body, 

 nor how she has scratched the earth that was 

 drawn from the hole back into its mouth, the 



