NATURAL HISTORY OF THE RABBIT 23 



hand, and the wound, having begun to fester, had 

 to be poulticed. Mr. Eustace Banks, of the Rectory, 

 Corfe Castle, who reported the case in The Field 

 of February 17, 1894, mentioned this as the only 

 instance of a wounded rabbit biting that had come 

 to his knowledge, and he considered it therefore 

 of very rare occurrence. On the other hand, Mr. 

 J. Simpson, of Wortley, Yorkshire, whose excel- 

 lent book on the rabbit we shall have occasion to 

 quote later on, thus commented on the occurrence : 

 ' Until reading the notes which have appeared lately 

 in The Field, I was under the impression that it was 

 pretty well known that rabbits would bite when pro- 

 voked. I have been bitten a number of times by 

 both tame and wild rabbits — the latter in a tame state 

 — and on every occasion it happened when I had 

 incautiously put my hand near a nest of young. The 

 doe sprang with a bound at my hand and gave just 

 one severe grip. I got so well aware of this when 

 a boy, that I used always to collar the doe before 

 putting my hand on the nest.' 



Here, it will be observed, the attack was made 

 in defence of the young, which is a different matter 

 from the case of a rabbit biting when wounded, an 

 event, as above stated, of fortunately rare occurrence. 



As to the comparative speed of hares and rabbits 



