THE RABBIT. 



585 



follow, and in a very few minutes the frightened Rabbits have come again into the 

 light of day, and have recommenced their interrupted pastimes. 



Few animals are so easily startled as the Rabbit, and with perfect good reason. For 

 their enemies are found in so many directions and under such insidious guises, that 

 they are well justified in taking every possible precaution for their safety. Sundry ra- 

 pacious birds are very fond of young Rabbits, and swoop down unexpectedly from 

 some unknown aerial region before the doomed creature can even comprehend its danger. 

 Stoats and weasels make dreadful havoc in a warren, and even the domestic cat is sadly 

 apt to turn poacher if a well-stocked warren should happen to be within -easy distance 

 of her home. Foxes are very crafty in the pursuit of young Rabbits, and dig them 

 out of the ground in a very ingenious and expeditious manner ; while the common 

 hedgehog is but too apt to indulge its carnivorous appetite with an occasional Rabbit. 



The burrows in which the Rabbit lives are extremely irregular in their construction, 

 and often communicate with each other to a remarkable extent. 



From many of its foes, the Rabbit escapes by diving suddenly into its burrow ; but 

 there are some animals, such as the stoat, weasel, and ferret, which follow it into its 

 subterranean abode, and slay it within the precincts of its own home. Dogs, especially 



RABBIT. Lepus cualculus. 



those of the small terrier breeds, will often force their way into the Rabbit burrows, and 

 have sometimes paid the penalty of their life for their boldness. The Rabbit has been 

 seen to watch a terrier dog safely into one of the burrows, and then to fill up the 

 entrance so effectually that the invader has not been able to retrace his steps, and has 

 perished miserably beneath the surface of the ground. 



When the female Rabbit is about to become a mother, she quits the ordinary bur- 

 rows, and digs a special tunnel for the purpose of sheltering her young family during 

 their first few weeks of life. At the extremity of the burrow she places a large quantity 

 of dried herbage, intermixed with down which she plucks from her own body, so as to 

 make a soft and warm bed for the expected occupants. The young Rabbits are about 

 seven or eight in number, and are born without hair and with their eyes closed. Not 

 until they have attained the age of ten or twelve days are they able to open their eye- 

 lids and to see the world into which they have been brought. 



When domesticated, the female Rabbit is sometimes apt to eat her own young, a 

 practice which has been considered as incurable. It seems, however, that the Rabbit 

 acts in this apparently unnatural manner from very natural causes. It has long been the 

 custom to deprive domestic Rabbits of water, on the plea that in a wild state they never 



