158 



drive them from under barns and stacks. The Great Horned Owl and 

 the Red-tailed Buzzard are successful rabbit hunters. As with the squir- 

 rels, the larvse of a large gad-fiy infest them, and in the summer fleas are 

 abundant in their fur. The Rabbit is very prolific, producing four to six 

 young at a birth, and having three or four litters each year. The young 

 are born clothed with hair and with the eyes open. In open ground the 

 nest is of leaves and grass, finished with, fur from the pelage of the 

 mother; the nest is usually in a hollow scratched in the earth. The 

 young leave the nest at an early age, and easily fall a prey when too small 

 to escape by flight. In cultivated districts where the Hawks, Owls, 

 Weasels, Minks, and other natural checks to their increase have been 

 destroyed, Rabbits increase in vast numbers. They sometimes girdle 

 young trees, although no doubt much of the injury to trees charged to the 

 Rabbits, is the work of Field Mice. The Rabbit is easily trapped or 

 snared ; sometimes they are poisoned. As the flesh is good in winter, 

 the most natural method of exterminating them is to encourage hunting 

 them for the market. They are worth on the Chicago market from five 

 to fifteen cents apiece, according to the abundance or the state of the 

 weather. I have seen them, when frozen in large boxes, sold by the 

 cubic foot, and shipped from Chicago to New York City. 



As with the Northern Hare, Squirrels, and Deer, the Rabbit is subject 

 to epidemics which sweep off numbers of them. Mr. J. A. Allen (Mono- 

 graphs of North American Rodentia, pages 371-2) states that he has re- 

 peatedly met with their dead bodies in the woods and thickets, and. has 

 noted the scarcity of the Rabbit during the years immediately following. 



The food of the Rabbit is grass, tender shoots of shrubs, buds, twigs, 

 and sometimes the bark of trees. The main damage to orchards and 

 nurseries is the severe pruning of the young trees. When the snow is 

 deep, they reach the branches of fruit trees, and cut them as clean as 

 with a knife. In winter, according to Mr. Kennicott, they may be 

 tracked to forest trees recently felled, where they resort to feed upon the 

 buds. 



In disposition the Rabbit is timid, not resisting when seized. It eludes 

 its enemies by speed and stratagem, doubling on its track when pursued, 

 taking to water which it dislikes, springing to a log and sitting motion- 

 less, while the dog passes or is beating about for it. They often return 

 to their forms when chased ; sometimes they crowd up a hollow tree by 

 bracing against the sides. It has an acute sense of sound, and often stops 

 when running to listen to any unusual sound, as of a person calling or 

 whistling loudly. 



The Rabbit cannot run long, but for a short distance it can outstrip 



