THE BABBIT. 



same autliority declares his opinion, that rabbits at large must 

 always suffer in point of profit by loss of ntimber than they 

 gain by cheaper feeding, exclusive of the mischief they d".; 

 and that this principle operates proportionally in limited en- 

 largement, as in the unlimited upon the warren. 



Dr. Alfred Smee, speaking of the nest of the wild rabbit, 

 says, " The female, when about to give birth to young, leaves 

 the warren and goes to some distance, perhaps one, two, or 

 throe fields. She then scratches a hole, two, three, four, five, 

 or even more feet in length ; but still it is a mere hole in the 

 ground and would be quite unfit to receive the little rabbits at 

 birth. To make the bed suitable, she pulls off from her own 

 body a good hatful of down, which makes a nest as warm and 

 snug as may be desired. She does not stop continually with 

 the young, but lives in the warren. In the dusk of the even- 

 ing she stealthily runs "to the nest to suckle her young ones. 

 Before she returns she carefully covers over the hole, leaving a 

 very small space for the air to enter ; and she has to remove 

 the covering whenever she visits her offspring. I have often 

 been delighted in watching these precautionary measures : and, 

 on one occasion, a rabbit wandered into the garden of a house 

 where I was stopping, and so I had a capital opportunity of 

 watching her proceedings as she returned nightly to visit the 

 nest. When I judged that the young ones were sufficiently 

 strong, I took the nest. In the evening the old rabbit came as 

 before, went into the hole, saw that all her little ones were 

 gone, took one look round, and ran away as fast as her legs 

 would carry her to the warren, and never returned to the 

 spot." If the nest of the rabbits is the least disturbed, the old 

 one finds it out on her next visit, and for ever deserts her pro- 

 geny. The worthy Doctor goes on to argue that, since what- 

 ever number of rabbits' " nests " we examine, they all exhibit 

 the same design, and that even in the domestic state, where 

 from being confined in hutches the rabbit cannot burrow, 

 she makes her nest in a dark chamber, and still puUs off 

 the down; it cannot be doubted that the proceeding is a 

 purely instinctive operation, and not in any way derived from 

 experience. 



The reason of the doe's quitting the warren to build a sly 

 cradle for her coming young ones would appear to be the un- 

 natural and bloodthirsty disposition of the buck. He seems to 

 entertain the notion that baby rabbits — no matter though they 

 be his own — are troublesome little wretches, and much better 



