222 Dangerous Rabbit Holes. 



The same thing may be seen in banks, though then 

 the lioles worked from within are not so much con- 

 cealed by grass. These holes are always ver^' much 

 smaller than the others, some so small that one might 

 doubt how a rabbit could force his body through 

 them. The reason why the other tunnels appear so 

 much larger is because the rabbit has no means of 

 ' shoring' up his excavation with planks and timbers, 

 and no ' cage ' with which to haul up the sand he has 

 moved ; so that he must make the mouth wider than 

 is required for the passage of his bod}', in order to 

 get the stuff out behind him. He can really creep 

 through a much smaller aperture. At night espe- 

 cially, when walking near a bury situate in the open 

 field, beware of putting your foot into one of these 

 holes, which will cause an awkward fall if nothing 

 worse. Some of the older holes, now almost deserted, 

 are, too, so hidden by nettles and coarse grass as to 

 be equally dangerous. 



The hereditary attachment of wild animals for 

 certain places is very noticeable at the warren. 

 Though annually ferreted, shot at six months out of 

 the twelve, and trapped — though weasels and foxes 

 prey on the inhabitants — still thej' cling to the spott 

 They may be decimated hj the end of January, 

 but by September the burrows are as full as ever. 

 Weasels and stoats of course come frequently, bent 

 on murder, but often meet their own doom througli 

 over greediness ; for some one generally comes along 

 with a gun once during the day, and if there be any 

 commotion among the rabbits, waits till the weasel or 

 stoat appears at the mouth of a hole, and sends a 

 charge of shot at him. These animals get caught, 



