THE RABBIT. 241 



open about the eleventh day. These data are the 

 result of observation among the rabbits of the 

 Pennine heights. The young are independent of 

 their mother when about three weeks old during 

 a season of plenty, and almost as soon as they are 

 self-supporting she begins to bethink herself of yet 

 another family. Indeed, it would seem that the 

 female pairs again within twenty-four hours of 

 producing her young ; and having these facts to 

 work upon, it does not require much imagination 

 for one to arrive at an understanding as to how the 

 rabbit survives. 



Sometimes a buck and a doe will live together far 

 removed from their kind. In this case some under- 

 standing of the marriage laws seems to exist between 

 them. They are said to have been known to unite, 

 for instance, to face a common foe in defence of 

 their young, though it is true that here again 

 deduction may be in error. Who can say that it 

 was not a case of two does occupying the same 

 burrow, and that, both having young, they united 

 because each was moved by purely personal 

 interests ? I cannot imagine a buck-rabbit parti- 

 cipating in any form of engagement involving per- 

 sonal risk unless he himself was directly concerned 

 in the issue ; and the idea of this beast defending its 

 young, which, at the best, it never visits unless to 

 destroy them during their mother's absence, hardly 

 seems a likely proposition. 



TEMPERAMENT. 



Though closely allied in many ways, the rabbit 

 and the hare are totally different from one another 

 in character and temperament. ' Rabbit-hearted ' 

 is an expression commonly used not only by white 

 races, but also by red and brown people, and except 



W.A. P 



