The cottontail, whose name was suggested by the fluffy white 

 under-surface of the up-turned tail, measures about seventeen inches 

 in length and weighs, on the average, about two and a half or 

 three pounds, although heavier specimens are often captured. His 

 varied diet includes grasses, clover, berries and leaves from his wild 

 haunts, garden vegetables, buds and twigs of young trees ; we must 

 do him the justice to add that he usually commits this last injury 

 only when compelled to it by the hunger of winter. 



The young are born blind and naked, in a nest or tunnel dug 

 by the mother and lined with the softest grass and moss and pad- 

 ded with fur from her own body. 



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