214 LEPORID^— ORYCTOLAGUS 



The influence of rabbits on the general fauna of the country 

 is probably not less important than on the vegetation. The 

 universal habit of trapping these rodents has everywhere 

 resulted in a great destruction of all the carnivora, even where 

 there existed no special intention to destroy the latter. It 

 may safely be said that indiscriminate and unsupervised 

 trapping of rabbits must eventually end in the complete 

 extermination of every animal using their burrows, except the 

 most noxious of all, the rats, and even these are killed in 

 large numbers by rabbit-trappers. 



When the doe is about to give birth to her young, 

 she frequently forms a separate burrow, generally known as 

 a "stop" or "stab," a few feet long, at the bottom of which 

 she makes a warm nest of grass or moss, lined with fur plucked 

 from her own belly. This breeding-burrow is often placed 

 in an open field far away from any warren, and it has 

 only one entrance. The mother covers over this single 

 entrance with earth, which she rams in very tightly, and, 

 unless in exceptional circumstances, visits her offspring only 

 under cover of the night. When the young bunnies are 

 nearly old enough to come out and run, she leaves a small 

 opening in the plug, which opening is allowed to increase daily 

 until the time of final exit.^ Mr Kearton^has published two 

 photographs of a breeding-nest, both blocked up and open, 

 and states that in this particular case some hay had been 

 taken from a sheep-foddering station close by and scattered 

 over the closed entrance. No doubt the object of the special 

 breeding-nest is to protect the young from the murderous 

 propensities of the polygamous males, quite as much as from 

 carnivorous enemies. 



But a great number of young are dropped in the main 

 burrows,' without any partition to separate them from its 

 other occupants, and over these, no doubt, the mother keeps 

 watch during the day and for a portion of the night. The 

 instinct to secrete the young is, therefore, only partially 



' Jones, Woodcraft, 92. 2 Qp ^^y.^ pp. 178-79. 



' Jones writes me that he has dug out hundreds of new-born young from 

 ordinary burrows, none of which showed any signs of having been stopped. On 

 5th May 1886 I found two such litters of different ages in separate parts of a 

 single burrow. 



