ANIMAL HOMESTEADS 99 



young Hares, not being sheltered and thus pro- 

 tected in a hidden nest underground, are born 

 with their eyes wide open, and are soon able to 

 run about and obtain their own living. It will at 

 once be seen that, being born in an open and so- 

 called " nest " above ground, numerous enemies 

 beset them, so it comes about, as in the case of so 

 many ground-nesting animals, that the young of 

 the Hare are well developed at birth, and are soon 

 able to look after and defend themselves. 



Three other animals that resort to a fortress 

 below the soil are the Mole, the Fox, and the 

 Badger, whilst a good few build their homestead, 

 or make some place such as a tree-stump or hedge- 

 row-bottom their habitation very little above 

 ground, if at all. 



Whilst the velvety-clad Mole can, by means of 

 its clean flesh-like feet, burrow under the ground 

 with amazing dexterity and swiftness, and builds 

 a nest which is not perhaps of such a remarkable 

 description as some pictorial representations in 

 books lead one to believe; whilst the tough old 

 Badger — our only British example of the extinct 

 Bear — is most industrious in constructing an 

 " earth," the Fox never excavates a homestead on 

 its own account. In almost every phase of its 

 home life, excepting in the procuring of food, at 

 which it is an adept, the Fox appears to be an 

 indolent sort of animal, and the dog Fox will 



