CHAPTER VII 

 THE RABBIT 



IN the Broadland there are two kinds of rabbits the hedge- 

 row rabbit and the warren rabbit. 



The hedge-rabbit is a destructive creature, and a most 

 prolific breeder, breeding in mild winters every month of the 

 year (February, however, being their chief month), and the 

 doe taking the buck the same day the young are cast. They 

 make special holes in the banks and open fields to breed in, 

 their holes being often two or three hundred yards from 

 their homes. Before casting her young, the doe will almost 

 strip herself of down, with which she makes her nest, mixing 

 it with grass. In this warm, downy nest the young, num- 

 bering from six (the average number) to ten, are cast, their 

 birth being generally by night, the blind, feltless little creatures 

 being left by the mother in the day-time, when she covers 

 them up with down, for warmth and security. They remain 

 blind for nine days if they live so long, for sometimes she 

 deserts them, and is said to kill them if any one disturb the 

 nest. When they are three weeks of age she will leave a 

 small entrance to the young, and when they are a month old 

 they come forth into the great world and fend for them- 

 selves. 1 



And then she is often already a fortnight gone for a fresh 

 litter, and on the look-out for a fresh hole, if her first nest be 

 in the open field ; if, on the other hand, it be in the hedgerow, 

 she may throw them off to do for themselves at three weeks 



of age. Her felt grows rapidly, though it keeps thin in 



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