584 THE RABBIT. 



their circumference. These depredations can hardly be checked, as the animal lies 

 quietly in its " form " during the daytime, and makes long nocturnal journeys in order 

 to procure its food, so that the owner of the garden or field can have no clue to the 

 home of the thief which has injured him. 



It is a tolerably prolific animal, beginning to breed when only a year old, and pro- 

 ducing four or five young at a litter. The young Hares, or " leverets," as they are 

 technically termed, are born with their eyes open, and covered with hair. For the 

 space of four or five weeks they remain under the care of their mother, but after that 

 time they separate, and depend upon themselves for subsistence. 



THE common Hare is not found in Ireland, but the Irish Hare, Lepus Hibernicus, is 

 extremely common in that country, and takes the place of the common Lepus timidus. 

 It may be distinguished from its English relation by its shorter limbs, its round head, 

 and short ears, which are not so long as the head. According to some writers, the 

 Irish Hare is identical with the Alpine Hare, and ought to be ranked with that animal, 

 under the title of Lepus variabilis, or Variable Hare, in reference to the annual blanch- 

 ing of its coat during the winter months. 



RESEMBLING the hare in general appearance and in many of its habits, the RABBIT 

 is readily distinguished from that animal by its smaller dimensions, its different color, 

 its shorter and uniformly brown ears, and its shorter limbs. 



The Rabbit is one of the most familiar of British quadrupeds, having taken firm 

 possession of the soil into which it has been imported, and multiplied to so great an 

 extent that its numbers can hardly be kept within proper bounds without annual 

 and wholesale massacres. As it is more tameable than the hare, it has long been ranked 

 among the chief of domestic pets, and has been so modified by careful management 

 that it has developed itself into many permanent varieties, which would be considered 

 as different species by one who saw them for the first time. The little brown short- 

 furred wild Rabbit of the warren bears hardly less resemblance to the long-haired, 

 silken-furred Angola variety, than the Angola to the pure lop-eared variety with its 

 enormously lengthened ears and its heavy dewlap. 



In its wild state, the Rabbit is an intelligent and amusing creature, full of odd little 

 tricks, and given to playing the most ludicrous antics as it gambols about the warren 

 in all the unrestrained joyousness of habitual freedom. To see Rabbits at their best 

 it is necessary to be closely concealed in their immediate vicinity, and to watch them 

 in the early morning or at the fall of evening. No one can form any true conception 

 of the Rabbit nature until he has observed the little creatures in their native home ; 

 and when he has once done so, he will seize the earliest opportunity of resuming his 

 acquaintance with the droll little creatures. 



To describe the manifold antics of a Rabbit warren would occupy the space which 

 ought to be devoted to some twenty or thirty animals, and even then would be quite 

 inadequate to the proposed task. They are such odd, quaint, ludicrous beings, and are 

 full of such comical little coquetries and such absurd airs of assumed dignity, that they 

 sorely try the gravity of the concealed observer, and sometimes cause him to burst into 

 irrepressible laughter, to their profound dismay. 



At one time they are gravely pattering about the doors of their subterranean homes, 

 occasionally sitting upright and gazing in every direction, as if fearful of a surprise, and 

 all behaving with the supremest gravity. Next moment, some one gets angry, and 

 stamps his feet fiercely on the ground as a preliminary observation before engaging in a 

 regular fight. Suddenly a whole party rush off at full speed, scampering over the ground 

 as if they meant to run for a mile at least, but unexpectedly stop short at an inviting tuft 

 of herbage, and nibble it composedly as if they had not run a yard. Then a sudden panic 

 will flash through the whole party, and with a rush and a scurry every rabbit leaps into 

 its burrow and vanishes from sight like magic. The spot that was so full of life but a 

 moment since is now deserted and silent as if it had been uninhabited for ages ; but in 

 a few minutes one little nose is seen cautiously poked out of a burrow, the head and ears 



