192 WOODLAND CREATURES 



it is resorted to by any and every passing rabbit, 

 is a matter on which it would be difficult to 

 give an opinion, though when we remember 

 how clannish animals are the probabilities rest 

 with the former. Some of the burrows which 

 have been used for years, and never disturbed 

 by men with spades, are wonderful labyrinths 

 of tunnels. There is one feature that a rabbit 

 burrow hardly ever lacks, and that is a bolt 

 hole. No heap of soil without betrays this 

 exit. It is made by driving a tunnel up close 

 to the surface so as just to make an opening and 

 no more, and it is often covered with leaves 

 and grass so as to be invisible, but when danger 

 threatens, when escape by the main entrance 

 is impossible, the inhabitants are able to bolt 

 from this outlet. 



When a rabbit is travelling fast its hind-feet 

 come past its fore, as can be seen well when 

 studying the tracks left in snow. When merely 

 hopping, the hind-feet do not overtake the fore, 

 but as the pace increases and more ground is 

 covered at each bound it is evident that the 

 rabbit lands with its hind-feet beyond the fore- 

 paws. 



After a light snow one gets some idea of the 

 wonderful activity of the rabbits, for the woods 

 and meadows seemed laced with their tracks, 

 which they made when hopping to and fro in 

 search of food, of young trees to bark, and 

 other emergency rations that serve when the 

 grass is buried. In a severe winter rabbits 



