THE RABBIT. 225 



There are times when the thump system would 

 merely attract the attention of their foes when 

 it is better that every rabbit should steal swiftly 

 away, as silently as possible, as they often do. 



Of what value is the rabbit's white tail ? One 

 would think it merely makes him conspicuous 

 when otherwise he might escape unseen ; and this, 

 indeed, is the case. His white tail is of no value 

 to him personally in fact, he would be better 

 without it ; but it is endlessly valuable to his 

 friends, in the same way as their white tails are 

 endlessly valuable to him. 



The whole colony is at its feeding-grounds, and 

 suddenly danger appears over the ridge. The 

 rabbits are as yet unseen, but the faintest sound 

 would betray their presence ; so the cony 

 nearest the danger rises and bolts swiftly and 

 silently, and every rabbit he passes sees a bobbing 

 white danger-signal, which means there is not a 

 moment to be lost. And each rabbit, as he beholds 

 it, rises and glides away, unintentionally giving 

 the alarm to those nearest to him, so that in a 

 few seconds it has spread north and south and 

 down the forest -side, and the man stealing 

 through the shadows with his gun wonders why 

 there is not a rabbit abroad to-night, for by the 

 time he reaches the foot of the wood the alarm 

 has flashed ahead of him over two or three fields ! 



Many a time, in the dusk of evening, I have 

 peered down into a ravine I knew to be literally 

 full of rabbits, but not one of them could I see 

 until, on my loosening a pebble, the whole green- 

 sward below has instantly become dotted with 

 bobbing white danger-signals, nothing else being 

 visible. For the rabbit does not exhibit his white 

 tail when feeding ordinarily ; it is only when he 



W.A. o 



