THE RABBIT. 149 
permanent varieties, which would be considered as different species by one 
who saw them for the first time. 
The burrows in which the Rabbit lives are extremely irregular in their 
construction, and often communicate with each other to a remarkable extent. 
From many of its foes the Rabbit escapes by diving suddenly into its 
burrow; but there are some animals, such as the stoat, weasel, and ferret, 
which follow it into its subterranean abode and slay it within the precincts of 
its own home. 
When the female Rabbit is about to become a mother, she quits the 
ordinary burrows, and digs a special tunnel for the purpose of sheltering her 
young family during their first few weeks of life. At the extremity of the 
burrow she places a large quantity of dried herbage intermixed with down 
which she plucks from her own body, so as to make a soft and warm bed for 
the expected occupants. The young Rabbits are about seven or eight in 
RABBIT. —(Lepus cuntculus.) 
number, and are born without hair and with their eyes closed. Not until 
they have attained the age of ten or twelve days are they able to open their 
eyelids and to see the world into which they have been brought. 
Rabbits are terribly destructive animals, as is too well known to all residents 
near a warren, and are sad depredators in field, garden, and plantation, 
destroying in very wantonness hundreds of plants which they do not care to 
eat. They do very great damage to young trees, delighting in stripping them 
of the tender bark as far as they can reach while standing on their hind feet. 
Sometimes they eat the bark, but in many cases they leave it in heaps upon 
the ground, having chiselled it from the tree on which it grew, and to which 
it afforded nourishment, merely for the sake ot exercising their teeth and keep- 
ing them in proper order, just as a cat delights in clawing the legs of chaivs 
and tables. 
In its native state the fur of the Rabbit is nearly uniform brown, but when 
the animal is domesticated its coat assumes a variety of hues, such as pure 
white, jetty black, pied dun, slated grey, and many other tints. 
THE CHINCHILLA, so well known for its exquisitely soft and delicate fur, 
belongs to the group of animals which are known to zoologists under the 
title of Jerboidee, and which are remarkable for the great comparative length 
of their hinder limbs, and their long hair-clothed tails. 
The Chinchilla is an inhabitant of Southern America, living chiefly among 
the higher mountainous districts, where its thick silken fur is of infinite 
