MOORLAND IDYLLS. 



in horror. " Why build on Hartmoor at all ? 

 Why not simply burrow ? " And the rabbits 

 burrow. The hill-top is just honey-combed 

 with their underground palaces. There they 

 lurk for the most part during the heat of 

 the day, and come out at night to feed on 

 the furze-bushes that protect and conceal the 

 mouths of their burrows. Indeed, the very 

 shape of the furze-bush, as we ordinarily 

 know it, depends on the constant activity of 

 the hungry and greedy bunnies. Naturally, 

 gorse, if left to itself, would grow feathery 

 from the soil upward, without any gaunt 

 stretch of naked stem at its base ; but the 

 rabbits eat off the growing shoots just as 

 high as they can reach by standing tip-toe 

 on their hind feet ; so that the resulting 

 shape is a product, so to speak, of rabbit 

 into gorse-bush. Where the soil is light 

 and sandy, as here, burrowing is universal ; 

 but on cold wet moors, the rabbits avoid 

 the chance of rheumatism by construct- 

 ing long tunnels above ground instead, 



38 



