482 



THE RABBIT. 



are found in different parts of North America. In wjnter it is white, with its ear-tips bor- 

 dered with black. In summer it is brown, varied with black. 



The Wood Hare {Lepus sylvaticus) is represented by three varieties. The term Gray Rab- 

 bit is very commonly used to designate the three. This species is smaller than the preceding. 

 Its habitat ranges from Hudson' s Bay to Florida. It is timid and inoffensive. It does not 

 burrow, but makes a "form," a slight depression on the ground sheltered by some shrub. It 

 breeds about three times in a season, producing four to six at a birth. Its general form and 

 : habits are much like those of the English rabbit. 



i Trowbridge's Hare {Lepus trowbridgii) is the smallest of the family. Its habitat is on 



the Pacific coast. Six other species are 

 • .:-.. . - ^ f>.. known fco North America : found in Cali- 



' '' -i -"^V' ; ... r'-' s -V ^x? '" '*?' V' - 4 '!',, fornia and Texas. 



An interesting animal is the North 

 American Pika {Lagomys princeps), 

 known as the Little Chief Hare. It 

 was once regarded as allied to the Hares ; 

 now, it forms a family by itself. It is 

 quite small — but little larger than a com 

 mon Norway rat. Its range is from the 

 tops of the Pocky Mountains to British 

 America. Though not properly a Hare, 

 it strongly resembles a young- 

 rabbit. 



English 



RABBIT.— Lepus cuniculus. 



Resembling the hare in general ap- 

 pearance and in many of its habits, the 

 Rabbit is readily distinguished from that 

 animal by its smaller dimensions, its dif- 

 ferent color, its shorter and uniformly 

 brown ears, and its shorter limbs. 



The Rabbit is one of the most familiar 

 of quadrupeds, having taken firm posses- 

 sion of the soil into which it has been im- 

 ported, and multiplied to so great an 

 extent that its numbers can hardly be 

 kept within proper bounds without annual and wholesale massacres. As it is more tamable 

 than the hare, it has long been ranked among the chief of domestic pets, and has been so 

 modified by careful management that it has developed itself into many permanent varieties, 

 which would be considered as different species by one who saw them for the first time. The 

 little, brown, short-furred, wild Rabbit of the warren bears hardly less resemblance to the 

 long-haired, silken-furred Angola variety, than the Angola to the pure lop-eared variety with 

 its enormously lengthened ears and heavy dewlap. 



In its wild state the. Rabbit is an intelligent and amusing creature, full of odd little tricks, 

 and given to playing the most ludicrous antics as it gambols about the warren in all the unre- 

 strained joyousness of habitual freedom. 



To see Rabbits at their best, it is necessary to be closely concealed in their immediate 

 vicinity, and to watch them in the early morning or at the fall of evening. No one can form 

 any true conception of the Rabbit nature until he has observed the little creatures in their 

 native home ; and when he has once done so, he will seize the earliest opportunity of resuming 

 his acquaintance with the droll little creatures. 



To describe the manifold antics of a Rabbit warren would occupy the space which ought 

 to be devoted to some twenty or thirty animals, and even then would be quite inadequate to 

 the proposed task. They are such odd, quaint, ludicrous beings, and are full of such comical 



