141 



XXIV. 



WHITE RABBITS AND WHITE HARES. 



WALKING out in the undercliff by Tom Fowler's cottage 

 this afternoon, I have just come across a very unusual 

 sight for an English warren. A snow-white wild rabbit 

 has started this moment, almost from under my feet, and 

 made straight for his burrow on the neighbouring hill- 

 side. What is stranger still, he was a full-grown buck, 

 apparently ; and this is peculiar, because a rabbit of 

 such a conspicuous colour is almost sure to get picked 

 off early in his life by prowling owls or passing badgers. 

 Indeed, that is just why wild rabbits as a rule possess 

 their well-known greyish-brown colour. Such a colour 

 harmonises well with the dry bracken and low stubble 

 among which they feed : and it thus renders the animals 

 as little conspicuous as possible to their numerous enemies, 

 especially in the dusk of evening, which is their proper 

 feeding time. Wild rabbits tend to vary in colour a 

 little, just as tame ones do, though to a less degree : but 

 the variations are dangerous to the creatures, because 

 they betray them more readily to their keen-eyed foes. 

 It is only where snow abounds that white rabbits or 

 white hares are likely to possess any advantage ; and 



