BRITISH MAMMALS 



all in keeping with the wild, uncultivated country where 

 it chooses to make its home. 



It possesses the same habit as Lepus europosus of 

 lying close, but it does not resort to a " form " in the 

 same way. The food mostly consists of the seeds of 

 the pine-tree and grasses. It is beUeved that only two 

 litters of young are produced each year. 



Rabbit. — Belonging to the same genus as the Hare, 

 the Rabbit's specific name at once indicates its dis- 

 position — timidus. Quite unlike the two rodents first 

 considered, the present species is a social creature, 

 breeding and congregating in large numbers, the home 

 being called a warren. It reproduces at an alarming 

 rate, and in Australia it has becomes such a pest that 

 fortunes have been spent upon means to reduce its num- 

 bers, but without avail. It was a sad day for agriculturists 

 in the land of the golden fleece when a settler there 

 introduced Brer Rabbit. It has flourished exceedingly, 

 owing, in all probabiHty, to the country suiting its 

 requirements, and the absence of natural enemies. 

 At times, it becomes a pest in our own land at home, 

 when efforts have to be made to reduce it, but this is 

 easier said than done. In spite, however, of its fecundity, 

 and its revelHng in the pastures and grassy hillsides of 

 our English countryside, there are some districts from 

 which the march of civilisation has almost stamped it 

 out. Opposite the country study from which we write 

 these notes, there is a wooded common of some eighty 



acres which dates from the time of Offa, one of the 

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