THE COMMON RABBIT 181 



cat was out of the way. When she came in from 

 a walk round the garden she must have been 

 greatly puzzled at the change which had taken 

 place in her kittens there were now only two 

 black and white ones, the others having become 

 a greyish brown ; but after a little hesitation 

 she seemed to conclude the mistake had been 

 on her side, so got into the basket, lay down, 

 and cuddled them all up to her. A minute or 

 two later she began to wash the strange " kittens." 

 It was then certain all would be well. 



Now occurred a most unexpected development. 

 Another cat, " Old Puss " (this is the one that 

 reared "Whiskers" the rat 1 ), who had had 

 kittens at the same time, and whose family had 

 been reduced to one, took a fancy to the mixed 

 family, carried her only kitten to the basket, 

 and established herself as foster-mother to them. 

 When discovered they were all lying together, 

 the two old cats, their three kittens, and the 

 two little rabbits, to which I added a third young 

 rabbit to make the numbers equal. This strange 

 family flourished greatly, and I tried to get some 

 photographs of them all together, but more trouble- 

 some creatures were never put before a camera. 

 They had to be taken out on to the lawn on account 

 of the light, where they kept running first in 

 one direction and then in another. The two 

 parents were no better, as they ran after the 

 truants. It was a curious sight to see a small 

 rabbit hopping away over the grass with an 



1 See my book Wild Creatures of Garden and Hedgerow. 



