ii 4 ANIMALS AT WORK AND PLAY 



downs the main column, and forms, as any one may 

 see by looking at the foot of a large timber tree in 

 a meadow, a tiny canal at the base of the trunk. 

 The writer has sometimes seen hares not lying in 

 their form, but sitting up in such places, just as a 

 labourer shelters himself behind a haystack. Where 

 there are no woodlands, they creep under the 

 irregular overhanging cornice made by the crumbling 

 away of the mould beneath the roots in the hedge- 

 banks, and there scratch out a snug and dry retreat. 

 Rabbits usually keep underground in their burrows, 

 only coming out to feed, unless their holes are 

 flooded, as often happens after a long course of wet. 

 They then leave the warren altogether, and lie out 

 among the turnips, or even on the open stubbles, 

 huddled up into the smallest possible space, as if 

 they had lost all faith in the possibility of finding 

 further shelter. 



Rats have the strongest possible dislike to damp, 

 and on the first approach of settled wet swarm into the 

 stacks and farm buildings. Those which spend their 

 lives along the banks of rivers and brooks a semi- 

 aquatic breed of land-rats which resemble the true water- 

 rats in all but their vegetarian diet have a simple and 

 clever resource for wet weather. They leave their holes 

 in the banks, and go up into the crowns of the pollard 

 willows which fringe the streams and line the hedges ; 



