THE RABBIT OR CONY 225 



existence of nests in hollow trees, several of which were known 

 to Alston,^ seems to be a corollary of the animal's love of 

 burrowing amongst the roots of trees. 



The food of rabbits may be dismissed in a very few words, 

 since, although thriving best on rich pastures, they will eat 

 a large /-^i-iety of vegetable substances, from leaves to tubers 

 and roots,^ and in winter, if more palatable food is scarce, 

 they are very destructive to the bark of most trees. In the 

 hot summer of 19 11 my keeper, M. Parle, found their stomachs 

 full of blackberries ; and according to Mr Simpson,^ furze, and 

 also acorns, form excellent fodder for them, and he states 

 that they grow very fat if fed on acorns. Rabbits are com- 

 monly believed not to drink in the wild state, but Mr Cocks 

 has seen fully a hundred drinking simultaneously at the pond 

 at Swinley, in Windsor Forest, where the soil is dry and 

 sandy. They soon learn to lap milk in captivity, and should 

 always be kept supplied with water when about to kindle. 



' Only two instances are known to me of wild rabbits 

 deserting their habitual vegetarianism. Thus Mr Adams 

 states* that he has constantly found heaps of gnawed 

 empty snail-shells at the mouths of burrows in the north 

 of Ireland. On the sandhills at Portrush, these heaps often 

 amounted to a bushel, and sometimes nearly blocked up the 

 entrances to the burrows. He never actually observed 

 the animals eating the snails, but concluded that the work 

 could not have been that of rats, and that the molluscs must 

 have been brought in one by one by the rabbits to be eaten 

 at leisure. The truth of Mr Adams's surmise has since been 

 confirmed beyond all doubt by Mr C. E. Wright,* who was 

 able to watch rabbits eating snails in County Donegal. 



When food is plentiful near their burrows, rabbits do not 

 stray far away, and their life is one of more or less regular 

 routine. They feed for the most part during the afternoon,^ 



' Bell, ed. ii., 345. 



^ W. P. Westell {The Young Naturalist, 1909, 1 14) suggests that in spring rabbits 

 nip off portions of the flowers of primroses in the woods out of sheer mischief. 



' Op. cit, 73 ; Field, 9th December 1893, 896. 



* Quart Joum. Conchology, vol. xii., 268, April 1909. * Joum. et loc. cit. 



"Arthur Willey {Convergence in Evolution, 191 1, 29) cites the Rabbit as a rare 

 instance of the combination of fossorial and diurnal habits. Very many burrowing 

 mammals are certainly nocturnal, but there are numerous exceptions, as, for instance. 



