226 THE RABBIT. 



rises and runs that it shows up vastly visible, and 

 he can run at full speed through the densest of 

 undergrowth without displacing a leaf. 



On their runways, rabbits always place their 

 feet in exactly the same places, so that the track, 

 instead of being evenly worn, like a human path- 

 way, consists of a string of worn patches, from 

 one to the other of which they hop. The rabbit- 

 catcher knows this, and places his snare in such 

 a way that it will catch the rabbit mid-leap ; but a 

 pathway of this kind is of value in that the patches 

 become trodden hard and free of crackling leaves 

 and twigs, so that the owners can run along it 

 without creating undue noise. 



ENEMIES. 



Rabbits appear to exist simply as a natural 

 food for other things another reason, perhaps, 

 for the aforesaid white tail and there is no end 

 to their foes. Guns, nets, snares, traps, dogs, 

 weasels, cats, and foxes are but a few of their 

 everyday enemies, for tens of thousands of rabbits 

 meet their fate annually by flood-water or by 

 disease. Those killed by man, the veritable cart- 

 loads which go to our cities each week during 

 autumn and winter in fact, the whole year round 

 are but a driblet compared with the gigantic drain 

 on their numbers effected by the ordinary course 

 of nature ; yet everywhere the rabbit thrives and 

 multiplies, often to so great an extent that the 

 most stringent measures have to be taken in order 

 to keep its numbers in check. 



In the mountains of the north the rabbits, for 

 ages past, have made their burrows in the sandy 

 banks of the mountain-burns ; and the very fact 

 that these banks are of sandy formation, which 



