THE BROWN HARE AND THE RABBIT 



609 



fur, and finally at the extremities well- 

 marked triangles of silky black. A wild 

 Rabbit's ears are also black-tipped, but 

 the body colour of them is brown, and 



WLLD KABBIT. 



this merges gradually into the black. 

 When a Hare is at rest in his " form," 

 his ears are laid back flat. In this position 

 the patterns of the hinder parts of them 

 are completely concealed, and the same 

 thing happens when the Hare is extended 

 to a gallop. When, however, he is lilting 

 at his ease, or frolicking, or sitting up to 

 listen, his ears are erect and expanded, 

 and the markings, as seen from behind, 

 are extremely conspicuous. 



Mr. Kay Robinson has suggested that 

 when a Hare's ears are projected above 

 surrounding herbage, the black tips may 

 have a protective value, inasmuch as the 

 Hare's enemy would be naturally on the 

 look-out for something brown. He quotes 

 in support of this an interesting experience 

 of his own. " My first idea," he writes, 

 " was that they (the black-tipped ears) 

 were some large black-and-brown butter- 

 fly with spread wings on one of the 

 turnip leaves." {Country Side, May 12th, 

 1908.) 



Mr. Kay Robinson's suggestion, in- 

 genious though it be, is, in my judgment, 

 untenable. In the whole scheme of 



nature-colouring there is nothing so 

 arresting as black. An isolated black 

 object above shadow level screams for 

 notice, and Mr. Kay Robinson's attention 

 was attracted, as that of any other good 

 naturalist would be, by the blackness of 

 the Hare's ears. Anything which attracts 

 the attention of man, let alone that of 

 raptorial birds, would be poor protection 

 for a Hare. 



The white under surface (or scut) of a 

 Hare or Rabbit's tail presents another 

 puzzle. It is chieflv conspicuous when 

 Hare or Rabbit is in full flight. With Mr. 

 Kay Robinson's objection to the book- 

 theory that these white " scuts " are 

 guiding signals which enable young Rabbits 

 to follow their parents to the burrow, 

 " in the same way as the soldiers of Henry 

 of Navarre were able to follow their 

 leader's white plume through the thick 

 of battle," I entirely agree. The facts are 

 all against this naive suggestion. Startled 

 bunnies do not follow each other's tails. 

 It is a case of each one for himself. Some 

 prefer to make for shelter, some lie 

 crouched in the open. They are not 

 remarkably intelligent animals, but they 



WILD RABBIT. 



have sutticient intelligence to avoid a 

 procession in line ahead. 



Both Hare and Rabbit being normally 

 twilight feeders, it is conceivable that 



