THE NATURAL 



purveyor has brought to the house. The rabbit is very- 

 rough in love; the hamster, another rodent, often be- 

 comes carnivorous during the rutting season; they say 

 that he is quite ready to eat his young, and that the 

 female, fearing his ferocity, leaves him before delivery. 

 These aberrations are exaggerated in captivity, and af- 

 fect even the female. One knows that the she-rabbit 

 sometimes eats her young; this happens especially when 

 one has the imprudence to touch or even to look too 

 closely at the young rabbits. This is enough to bring 

 on a violent disturbance of maternal sentiment. The 

 same dementia has been observed in a vixen who had 

 kittened in a cage; one day someone passed, and looked 

 steadily at the young foxes, a quarter of an hour later 

 they were throttled. 



Various explanations are given for this practice among 

 she-rabbits, the simplest being that they are driven 

 by thirst to kill the young in order to drink the blood. 

 This is rather Dantescan for she-rabbits. They say 

 also, regarding both wild and tame rabbits, that the 

 female when surprised kills the young because she has 

 not industry like the doe-hare, cat, or bitch, to transport 

 them to some other place or to save at least one, by 

 the scruff of its neck. The third explanation is that, 

 devouring the afterbirth, like nearly all mammals, and 

 this from physiological motive, the doe-rabbit acquires 

 a taste, and continues the meal, absorbing the young as 

 well. Without rejecting any of these explanations one 

 may present several others. First, it is not only the 

 females who eat the young, the males are equally given 

 to it. Being very lascivious, the male rabbit tries to 

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