NATURAL HISTORY OF THE RABBIT 21 



knocked it over before it could get out of the way. 



The discomfited bird, with a hoarse croak, scrambled 



on to its feet and hastily took flight. 



Nor are these exceptional cases. Similar instances 



of the courageous behaviour of rabbits in defence of 



their young have been from time to time recorded.^ 



In one of the instances above related it will be 



observed that the parent rabbit, after driving away a 



stoat, carried off her young one in her mouth. It is, 



perhaps, not generally known that both hares and 



rabbits transport their young in this way, just as cats 



will carry their kittens, or dogs their puppies. Many 



such instances have come under our notice, more 



often in the case of hares, which convey their young 



in this manner, when they have been discovered, to a 



place of greater safety. 



It is somewhat curious that, notwithstanding the 



fierce way in which both rabbits and hares will defend 



their young, they seldom attempt to bite anyone 



when taken from a net, or on being picked up when 



wounded by shot. The writer in twenty-five years' 



experience, during which time he must have shot and 



seen others shoot thousands of rabbits, has never 



' See Couch, Illustrations of Instinct, p. 231 ; The Essex 

 Naturalist, vol. ii. (1888), p. 71 ; The Field, September 8, 1888, 

 September 20, 1890, November 7, 1891, May 7, 1892, Octo- 

 ber 7, 1893, and August 14, 1897. 



