C 18 ] 



RABBITS AND PARTRIDGES 



What is a country without rabbits and partridges? 

 They are among the most simple and indigenous 

 animal products; ancient and venerable families 

 known to antiquity as to modern times; of the very 

 hue and substance of Nature, nearest allied to leaves 

 and to the ground, — and to one another; it is either 

 winged or it is legged. It is hardly as if you had seen 

 a wild creature when a rabbit or a partridge bursts 

 away, only a natural one, as much to be expected as 

 rustling leaves. The partridge and the rabbit are 

 still sure to thrive, like true natives of the soil, what- 

 ever revolutions occur. If the forest is cut off, the 

 sprouts and bushes which spring up afford them 

 concealment, and they become more numerous than 

 ever. That must be a poor country indeed that does 

 not support a hare. Our woods teem with them both, 

 and around every swamp may be seen the partridge 

 or rabbit walk, beset with twiggy fences and horse- 

 hair snares, which some cow-boy tends. 



Walden, 310. 



