THE COMMON RABBIT 189 



back of the neck, and where you find one dead 

 rabbit you are sure to find several more, for these 

 fierce little hunters kill as much for sport as for 

 actual need of food. 



There is but one circumstance under which 

 a rabbit may collect sufficient courage to keep 

 its numbing fear of the stoat at a distance, and 

 that is when a doe finds it attacking her young. 

 Mother-love will work miracles ; it will even 

 nerve a rabbit to turn on a stoat ! Even then 

 it happens but seldom, and only three cases have 

 come to my notice. The first was witnessed 

 by my father, who was out one spring evening 

 near a spot where numerous rabbits were feeding. 

 He was walking along so quietly that they 

 did not take alarm, and had got within thirty 

 yards of the three or four nearest ones " when 

 they pricked up their ears and looked towards 

 a bush. There was a rustling, scuffling noise, 

 and out came a big stoat, followed by a rabbit. 

 She did not give him a moment, but, jumping 

 over him, dealt him a sharp blow with her heels. 

 He hissed and swore and tried to get away, but 

 she went after him and hit him again and again 

 before he could get under some dead bracken. 

 The other rabbits sat up and watched, and 

 not one ran away." 



Two almost identical accounts, each told 

 within a few hours of the heroic duels being 

 seen, have been given me, the one by a school- 

 boy, the other by an old workman. The latter 

 said : "A gert stoat come out o' a bury wid a 



