224 THK RABBIT. 



that in their inexperience and ignorance they 

 misuse the alarm when they are small, thumping 

 away at the very slightest pretext, and apparently 

 carrying on a Morse system of telegraphy with 

 each other in this way. Little Bill, nibbling the 

 grass, sees a beetle fall off a twig, arid at once 

 thumps ; Janie, down below, thumps in answer ; 

 then everybody else thumps, because it is the 

 fashionable thing to do, and the very earth shakes. 

 Having thus scared themselves, they all keep 

 quiet for a second or two, then forget all about 

 it till another false alarm is given. 



Old rabbits, however, never thump unless they 

 suspect serious danger, and the more suspicious 

 they are the more vigorously they thump, the system 

 being of endless value in their constant watchful- 

 ness for their foes. One night, for example, when 

 most of the rabbits are away at their distant feeding- 

 grounds, the few that remain at home at the 

 warren namely, the very young and the nursing 

 mothers hear the alarm afar off, and at once are 

 on their guard, drawing near the mouths of the 

 holes so that they can instantly pop underground. 

 The alarm was possibly given by a rabbit three 

 fields away, thumping as he ran, and on the still 

 night the sound carries far and wide, warning 

 the entire rabbit population of the district that 

 danger is abroad. Similarly, one rabbit above 

 ground sees danger approach the warren, and 

 giving the alarm -signal as he pops down, he 

 warns all the rest against emerging, which other- 

 wise they might easily do, to meet danger at 

 their very threshold. 



Then rabbits have another and a far more 

 important way of signalling danger to each other, 

 which they do unintentionally and without sound. 



