238 VERTEBRATES. 



trapping. Light steel traps are usually efficient; but a 

 heavily weighted box trap set with a figure-4 trigger, 

 and baited with a cabbage stalk or a sweet potato, will 

 answer equally well. As the rabbit is nocturnal, the 

 traps should, of course, be set in the evening, and in places 

 much frequented by rabbits, in the " runs " or paths they 

 make through the grass or through the snow. 



Habits. A little time will be well spent in studying 

 the rabbit in its relation to nature. A moonlight evening 

 in winter, when the ground is frozen and covered with 

 snow, and when food has become scarce, or hard to get, 

 will afford a good opportunity. At such a time the 

 rabbits become more venturesome in their search for food. 

 They invade gardens, and search them over for stray tops 

 of cabbage or celery left from the preceding autumn ; 

 they enter orchards, and gnaw the bark from unprotected 

 young apple trees; they girdle wild crab apples and 

 other small woodland trees in the same way; and they 

 sometimes assemble and play together, dancing and scam- 

 pering about in the snow, with no other apparent object 

 than a good social time. 



On a warm evening in spring they may be seen sitting 

 by the roadside, nibbling the tender leaves of clover. At 

 such a time they may be approached quietly. If alarmed, 

 they will at once leap into cover, and disappear. In locali- 

 ties where they are much hunted on foot, they may be 

 approached nearer on horseback. 



At a distance, one may often be seen to rise up on its 

 hind feet to its full length, and look about, as if for 

 danger, with ears aloft. Near at hand, one, wishing to 

 hide, will crouch low on the ground, with its ears ex- 

 tended flat along its back. In such a position it is very 

 inconspicuous, especially if seen among dried grass and 

 leaves, which its colors so closely imitate. 



