184 Wild Life in a Southern County. 
that a tenant has entered on possession. In this way 
one or two take up their residence more than half-way 
down the hedge towards the orchard. Then the doe 
seems to have a desire to separate herself at a certain 
period from the rest. She goes out into the mowing 
grass perhaps thirty yards from the ‘bury,’ and there 
the young are born in a short hole excavated for 
the purpose. The young rabbits naturally remain 
close to their birthplace ; they are conducted to the 
hedge as soon as they are old enough to run about; 
and so a fresh colony is formed. As they get larger, 
or, say, soon after midsummer, they appear to show 
a tendency to roam; and by the autumn, if left un- 
disturbed, descendants from the original settlement 
will have pushed outposts to a considerable distance. 
These, having been bred near, have little fear of enter- 
ing the orchard, or even the garden, and next season 
will rear their offspring close at hand and feed in the 
enclosure, using the close-cropped hawthorn as a 
cover. 
Weasels also occasionally come down the hedge 
into the orchard for the various prey they find there ; 
they visit the outhouses and sheds, too, at intervals 
in the cattle yards adjoining the house. More rarely 
the stoat does the same. A weasel may frequently 
be found prowling in the highway hedge. When a 
weasel runs fast on a level hard surface—as across a 
road—the hinder quarters seem every now and then to 
jump up as if rebounding from the surface ; his legs 
