CONCLUSION. 323 



anatomy which prevents him from lowering his 

 tail when running, I cannot say. 



Probably a rabbit would not get sufficient pro- 

 fit from his habit of displaying his tail to com- 

 pensate him for the danger thereby incurred 

 unless he were domiciled with a considerable 

 number of his fellows. The presence of only 

 two or three comrades would not be sufficient to 

 recoup him, for it takes many warnings to balance 

 the increased liability to attack which he incurs 

 by rendering himself conspicuous. 



Yet while it is fairly obvious that wherever 

 there are a large number of rabbits assembled in 

 a warren each individual receives greater benefit 

 from this protective measure than where the com- 

 munity is small, there is some danger of such a 

 commonwealth becoming unwieldy. Supposing 

 a square mile of country were covered by rabbits 

 of one clan, and every time one of these saw 

 danger and bobbed his white flag all scuttled into 

 their holes, it is plain that none of them would 

 eet far enough afield to obtain food, and the 

 system would prove detrimental. 



Here is a problem which any one with a genius 

 for statistics and for calculating chances might 



