ACOUSTICS OF A RABBIT-HOLE. 109 



leaves with five angles, and variegated with grey streaks. 

 Through the hawthorn bushes above comes a faint but 

 regular sound — it is the parting fibres of the grass-blades 

 in the meadow on the other side as the cows tear them 

 apart, steadily eating their way onwards. The odour of 

 their breath floats heavy on the air. The sun is sinking, 

 and there is a hush and silence. 



But the rabbit-burrow here at my elbow is not silent ; 

 it seems to catch and heighten faint noises from a distance. 

 A man is walking slowly home from his work up the lane 

 yonder ; the fall of his footsteps is distinctly rendered by 

 the hole here. The dull thuds of a far-off mallet or 'bitel' 

 (beetle) driving in a stake are plainly audible. The thump- 

 thump of a horse's hoofs cantering on the sward by the 

 roadside, though deadened by the turf, are reproduced or 

 sharpened. Most distinct of all comes the regular sound 

 of oars against the tholepins or rowlocks of a boat moving 

 on the lake many fields away. So that in all probability 

 to the rabbit his hole must be a perfect ' Ear of Dionysius,' 

 magnifying a whisper — unless, indeed, its turns and wind- 

 ings confuse the undulations of sound. It is observable 

 that before the rabbit ventures forth he stays and listens 

 just within the entrance of his burrow, where he cannot see 

 any danger unless absolutely straight before him — a habit 

 that may have unconsciously grown up from the apparent 

 resonance of sound there. 



Sitting thus silently on the root of the oak, presently 



