Mammal Study 



21? 



well. I once saw a marsh hare, on a stone in a brook, freezing most suc- 

 cessfully. I could hardly believe that a living thing could seem so 

 much like a stone; only its bright eyes revealed it to us. 



The rabbit cleans itself in amusing ways. 

 It shakes its feet, one at a time, with great 

 vigor and rapidity to get off the dirt and then 

 licks them clean. It washes its face with 

 both front paws at once. It scratches its ear 

 with the hind foot, and pushes it forward so 

 that it can be licked; it takes hold of its fur 

 with its front feet to pull it around within 

 reach of the tongue. 



The cotton-tail does not dig a burrow. Washing up. 



but sometimes occupies the deserted burrow 



of a woodchuck or skunk. Its nest is called a "form," which simply 

 means a place beneath a cover of grass or briars, where the grass is beaten 

 down or eaten out for a space large enough for the animal to sit. The 

 mother makes a soft bed for the young, using grass and her own hair for 

 the purpose; and she constructs a coarse felted coverlet, under which she 

 tucks her babies with care, every time she leaves them. Young rabbits 

 are blind at first, but when about three weeks old, are sufficiently grown 

 to run quite rapidly. Although there may be five or six in a litter, yet 

 there are so many enemies that only a few escape. 



Fox, mink, weasel, hawk, owl and snake all relish the young cotton- 

 tail if they can get it. Nothing but its runways through the briars can 

 save it. These roads wind in and out and across, twisting and turning 

 perplexingly; they are made by cutting off the grass stems, and are just 

 wide enough for the rabbit's body. However, a rabbit has weapons and 

 can fight if necessary; it leaps over its enemy, kicking it on the back 

 fiercely with its great hind feet. Mr. Seton tells of this way of conquering 

 the black snake, and Mr. Sharp saw a cat completely vanquished by the 

 same method. The rabbit can also bite, and when two males are fighting, 

 they bite each other savagely. Mr. E. W. Cleeves told me of a Belgian . 

 doe which showed her enmity to cats in a peculiar way. She would run 

 after any cats that came in sight, butting them like a billy-goat. The cats 

 soon learned her tricks, and would climb a tree as soon as they caught 

 sight of her. The rabbit's sound of defiance, is thumping the ground 

 with the strong hind foot. Some have declared that the front feet are 

 used also for stamping; although I have heard this indignant thumping 

 more than once, I could not see the process. The cotton-tail is a hare, 

 while the common domestic rabbit is a true rabbit. The two differ 

 chiefly in the habits of nesting; the hares rest and nest in forms, while 

 the rabbit rnakes burrows, digging rapidly with the front feet. 



Not the least of tributes to the rabbit's sagacity, are the negro folk- 

 stories told by Uncle Remus, wherein Bre'r Rabbit, although often in 

 trouble, is really the most clever of all the animals. I have often thought 



Rabbit tracks. 



