174 THE WORLD OF ANIMAL LIFE 



so that it can scratch away the soil easily. The burrow generally 

 runs for some distance under the ground, and has an entrance at 

 each end. So if a stoat or a weasel should come in at one end 

 and try to catch it, the rabbit can run out at the other. 



When the mother rabbit wants to bring up her family, she 

 leaves her own burrow and digs another, with a kind of chamber 

 at the end of it. This chamber is her nursery, and here she 

 makes a bed for her little ones of dry grass and leaves, which 

 she collects and arranges with much care. Lest it should not 

 prove sufficiently warm for the delicate little creatures, which 

 have no fur when they are born, she lines it with soft down plucked 

 from her own body. 



Like kittens and puppies, young rabbits are not able to open 

 their eyes until they are nearly a fortnight old. But they grow 

 so fast that after about four or live weeks they are quite big 

 and strong enough to take care of themselves. 



THE EDENTATES 



This is a very strange class of animals. The name given 

 to the group means " toothless ". They are not altogether with- 

 out teeth, but they have none in the front of the mouth, and those 

 at the back are few and small. They are in this respect the 

 opposite of the class (the Rodents) which we read about last. 

 Another characteristic of these animals is that they are all pro- 

 vided with great claws, which are so prominent as almost to seem 

 a deformity. The Sloth finds its claws very much in its way if 

 it tries to walk on the ground, which it very seldom does, and 

 even those members of the group which live on the ground move 

 slowly and awkwardly. 



The Edentates comprise only a few species, the principal of 

 which are the Sloth, the Armadillo, and the Ant-eater. They 

 all differ very widely from one another in form and appearance. 

 They are to be found only in the tropics, and the three mentioned 



