RABBITS 263 



garden at Harrow. Here was a chance of seeing 

 them, at last, in their native haunts, and that, too, 

 at the very "height of the season." On the other 

 hand, the place was at least a hundred miles away, 

 and a hundred miles seemed a long way to go 

 for a bird's nest. I should have eight hours of 

 travelling and only about four of bird's-nesting. 

 However, I made up my mind that it was worth 

 while ; and after reaching the end of our railway 

 journey, we had still a drive of six miles to the 

 "happy hunting-ground." Our road lay, at first, 

 through a sandy waste, capable of supporting 

 nothing but rabbits, and peopled with nothing but 

 them ; and very hard put to it must even rabbits 

 have been for a bare subsistence, till the warm 

 weather and the delicious rains of the preceding 

 few days gave fresh life to the grass, which we could 

 almost see growing greener and longer as we passed 

 by. On both sides of the road, on every hillock 

 and post of vantage, there was a rabbit basking in 

 the sun, or cleaning, with his innocent paws, his still 

 more innocent face. I always wonder, by the way, 

 how that mysterious process accomplishes anything 

 at all, and whether it is the paws that clean the 

 face, or the face that cleans the paws ; but let that 

 pass. 



