ORDER RODENTIA. , 217 



observes M. F. Cuvier, which nothing can soften. Love, 

 which unites the Dog and the Wolf, the Goat and the 

 Sheep, the Horse and the Zebra, cannot conciliate the Rab- 

 bit and the Hare. However violent their sexual desires 

 each for its own species, and however nearly the two may 

 be allied, they will under no circumstances approach each 

 other ; or, if by chance they meet, a combat generally fol- 

 lows, which not unfrequently terminates fatally to one; 

 hence Hares are not found where Rabbits are plentiful. 



The Rabbit differs very materially from the Hare in its 

 habits. Unlike the latter, which is contented with a mere 

 seat, a slight concavity on the surface of the earth, the 

 Rabbit digs deep and tortuous burrows for retreat and se- 

 curity ; for the facility of forming these retreats, it gene- 

 rally selects dry and sandy soils. The burrows have 

 usually several entrances, and are common to many indi- 

 viduals, all, as it is said, of one family. Where Rabbits 

 are plentiful, their burrows are separated by very slight in- 

 tervals, and sometimes even communicate with each other. 

 These retreats have no determinate or fixed forms, but the 

 galleries intersect each other in various directions. 



When a warren is established, so rapid is the increase of 

 these animals, that its continuance is only limited by want 

 of food. They produce at or even before six months old. 

 The period of their gestation is twenty or twenty-one days ; 

 but as, like the Hares, they have a double matrix, they are 

 sometimes known to produce two distinct litters at an in- 

 terval of only a few days. The young are brought forth at 

 the bottom of the burrow, in a bed prepared by the mother. 

 They are born covered with hair and with the eyes open, 

 but they do not venture from the burrows for two months, 

 when they begin to eat ; and the father, who has not seen 

 them before then, adopts them, and assists in finding young 

 and tender herbage as food for them. Eight or nine years 

 appears to be the ordinary term of their existence. 



