THE COMMON RABBIT. 377 



about in a sort of circle, shrieking with terror, and seemingly 

 incapable of getting away from its enemies, who would soon 

 have destroyed it had I not interfered." 



Mr. Henry Turner, of the Botanic Garden, Bury St. Edmunds, 

 says that " rabbits will take to the water when pursued, and 

 that he has seen four do so when they might have escaped 

 without getting wet. In one instance, although a man stood 

 on the bank which the rabbit was striving to gain, the animal 

 landed, and made its escape."* A lady informs me, that rabbits 

 used to enter the garden of Ham House, Upton, in Essex, and 

 that, as there was a warren on an island close by, it was 

 naturally inferred that they swam across the water. 



Rabbits generally remain in their burrows during the day j 

 but about twilight they come out to feed. Sometimes, however, 

 after a summer shower has fallen, and rendered the herbage 

 moist and tender, numbers of them may be seen feeding above 

 ground in the broad day. 



" They will out of their burrows, 



Like conies after rain." 



(Coriolanus, Act IV. Scene 4.) 



They feed on the blades and stalks of grass, the newly -sprung 

 corn, young tops of furze, turnips, carrots, greens, mallows, and 

 other plants -, together with the bark of young trees. 



Though rabbits live in numbers together in the warren, yet 

 they are said to be monogamous, each pair remaining attached 

 during their mutual existence. They breed when six months 

 old, and have many litters in the year. The doe, when about 

 to bring forth, forms a separate burrow, at the bottom of which 

 she makes a nest of the softest fur or down plucked from her 

 own body. The period of gestation is thirty days, and the 

 ordinary number of young at a litter varies from five to eight, 

 which (unlike the more exposed young of the hare) come forth 

 blind, and nearly naked. Domestic rabbits do not pair, and 

 are more prolific than the wild. Captain Brown says, that a 

 doe, which he had, produced sixteen at the first litter, ten at 



* Mag. Nat. Hist. (1831), vol. iv. p. 464. 



