WILD RABBITS. 441 



signal, — a significant bleat from one of the out- 

 standing herd, — scampering off with a leap, along 

 the ridge, inland." 



THE RABBIT. 



"Are you acquainted," my friend adds, " with the 

 fact that Rabbits have long existed in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Spanish-Town in a wild state ? The 

 furthest date back at which I have traced distinct 

 notices of them is in Lady Nugent's Journal. As it 

 is a work printed for private circulation only, and 

 not likely to be accessible to you, I point out the 

 date at which she mentions them. In an entry under 

 the 29th May, 1803 (vol. i., p. 410), she relates the 

 incidents of a fire which broke out in the pinguin 

 fences of the Government pen, a country residence 

 of the Governors, about three miles out in the Salt- 

 pond plains. The fire occurring in the droughts that 

 preceded the May rains of that year, she sets it 

 down as an effect of the sun's rays. * The grass and 

 every thing were so dry that they seemed to burn 

 like touchwood. The poor Rabbits ran out of the 

 fence by dozens, and many of them were half-roasted.' 

 We have the Rabbit mentioned in earlier writings, 

 but so indistinctly that I could not venture to say 

 whether the notice under that name does not rather 

 relate to the Indian Cony, than the European Rab- 

 bit. It still inhabits the Government pen district, 

 but, with all its known fecundity, is not common, yet 

 not unfrequently met with. The pinguins are to 

 these denizens of our fields what the furze covers are 

 to the wild animal in England ; but it is remarkable 



