ANIMALS. 301 



at the bottom of wliicli she makes a more fjmple apartment. 

 This done, she pulls off from her belly a good quantity of her 

 hair, with which she makes a kind of bed for her young. Dur- 

 ing the two first days she never leaves them ; and does not stir 

 out but to procure nourishment, which she takes with the ut- 

 most despatch ; in this manner suckling her young for near six 

 weeks until they are strong, and able to go abroad themselves. 

 During all this time, the male seldom visits their separate apart- 

 ments ; but when they are grown up, so as to come to the mouth 

 of the hole, he then seems to acknowledge them as his oiTspring, 

 takes them between his paws, smoothes their skin, and licks their 

 eyes ; all of them, one after the other, have an equal share in 

 his caresses. 



In this manner the rabbit, when wild, consults its pleasure 

 and its safety ; but those that are bred up tame, do not take the 

 trouble of digging a hole, conscious of being already protected. 

 It has also been observed/ that when people, to make a warren, 

 stock it with tame rabbits, these animals, having been unaccustom- 

 ed to the art of scraping a hole, continue exposed to the weather, 

 and every other accident, without ever burrowing. Their im- 

 mediate offspring also are equally regardless of their safety -. 

 and it is not till after two or three generations that these animals 

 begin to find the necessity and convenience of an asylum, and 

 practise an art which they could only learn from nature 



Rabbits of the domestic breed, like all other animals that are 

 under the protection of man, are of various colours •, white, 

 brown, black, and mouse-colour. The black are the most scarce ; 

 the brown, white, and mouse-colour, are in greater plenty. 

 Most of the wild rabbits are of a brown, and it is the colour 

 which prevails among the species ; for in every nest of rabbits, 

 whether the parents be black or white, there are some brown 

 ones found of the number. But, in England, there are many 

 warrens stocked with the mouse-colour kinds, which some say 

 came originally from an island in the river Humber, and which 

 still continue their original colour, after a great number of suc- 

 cessive generations. A gentleman,^ who bred up tame rabbits 

 for his amusement, gives the following account of their produc- 

 tion : " I began," says he, " by having but one male and female 

 only; the male was entirely white, and the female brown; but, 

 1 Buffon. 2 Mr Moutier, as quoted I y Mr Bi'iTon- 



II. 2c 



