RABBIT 



39 



Sweden in the west and north to Hungary, Transylvania, Galicia, Italy, and 

 Turkey in the east and south. Its home is in thickets and hedges; it lives on 

 hazel-nuts, beech-mast, corn, and berries, holding its food between its fore-paws, 

 which are used like hands, and are provided with thick, fleshy palms, as are also 

 the hind-feet. This pretty little dormouse is nocturnal, sleeping in its nest or 

 in the hollow of a tree by day, with its body coiled up into a ball 



Rabbit. 



The other European rodents, although found in the forests, do 

 not live in trees. With the exception of the hares, which prefer the 

 fields, the rabbit is the largest. Together with the hares, this species is distinguished 

 from other rodents by the four incisors 

 in its upper jaw, as it possesses a pair 

 of smaller ones at the back of the 

 ordinary large incisors. Young rabbits 

 even have three pairs of incisors, but 

 the last pair disappears 

 quickly, and is not re- 

 placed. 



RABBITS AND THEIR BURROW. 



Rabbits are often grouped in the same genus as the European hares, but are 

 sometimes separated as Oryctolagus. Both hares and rabbits have five toes on the 

 fore-feet and four on the hind-feet ; they are further distinguished by the short 

 hair on their soles and inside the cheeks. In colour they are grey mixed with 

 reddish brown, or red, or grey on the upper side ; and, except with certain Indo- 

 Malay and African species, the lower side of the tail is pure white, in order that 

 they may recognise each other from a distance when in rapid flight. The common 

 rabbit and the^Assam rough-haired rabbit have shorter legs and ears than hares, 

 and, unlike the latter, live in holes in the ground, so that they have no need to 

 hear so well or to run so rpiickly. Their young are born naked and blind, while 

 those of the hares are partially furred and have their eyes open when they make 



