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early winter after the first falls of snow. On mornings following 
a snow storm in early winter the hunters are especially numerous 
in the country, and even in the vicinity of these cities one may hear 
an almost continuous fusillade. At such times the rabbits appear 
to come in through the “‘firing line,”’ and take refuge in the cities. 
Fortunately they are not hunted to any great extent except during 
a few weeks in the year, and the larger carnivores and birds of prey 
which are their natural enemies are nearly extinct in the county. 
While rabbits are perhaps more abundant in the vicinity of 
groves or the edges of woods, they are found wherever there is 
sufficient vegetation to conceal them. On the prairie, during the 
spring, before vegetation appears, they are hard pressed for shelter, 
but hedges, the waste ground along fences, ditches, and roads serve, 
with their unremitting vigilance, to tide them over till the new 
erowth furnishes them abundant cover. Later, they are found in 
the corn fields, where they often remain all winter, making nests 
under some exceptionally large clod or under fallen stalks of corn. 
After a heavy snowfall they are easily taken in these places, being 
loth to leave them, and appearing stiff and stupid when driven out. 
They also winter in the woods, and probably the larger number of 
those in the vicinity of timber take to brush-heaps, thickets, etc., 
for shelter during the winter. Many, however, are true inhabitants 
of the prairie, remaining there the whole winter through. 
In general the rabbit is decidedly non-resistant, but at times, 
the mother may defend her young by kicking with her hind feet, and 
a blow from a rabbit’s foot, with its heavy nails, is not to be despised. 
But fighting is always a last resort with rabbits, and flight is their 
usual recourse for safety, and all the peculiar adaptations of the ani- 
mal seem made to that end. Their senses of hearing and of sight 
are remarkably acute, and the flexibility of the ears and the position 
of the eyes make it possible to use both through a wide angle. It 
would seem that the sense of smell is also acute, though not so 
much relied on. Though the necessities of their existence ina well- 
cultivated district like this, demand that rabbits be constantly alert, 
they are essentially crepuscular or nocturnal, feeding chiefly from 
sunset to sunrise. 
Under natural conditions, their food, so far as known, is entirely 
vegetable. In confinement the female may eat her young, and the 
male is given to destroying them. It is probable, however, that 
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