Quadrupeds . 903 



same haunts, so that it may generally be found in the same hedge- 

 row, or dry ditch, or plantation, where I have frequently found it in 

 the same form, at the foot of the same stump. Though the long- 

 legged hare will take refuge in copses and wooded inclosures, this 

 short-legged wood hare is never, I believe, found in the plains and 

 open country, and from its physical construction being less swift than 

 than the other, would afford but indifferent sport at a coursing match, 

 from its inferior capabilities of displaying those instantaneous turns, 

 and ingenious manoeuvres, for which the other kind, those about 

 Newmarket Heath especially, are so remarkable. 



2. The Wild Rabbit is generally described as burrowing in the 

 earth, both in warrens and in hedge-rows and banks. There is a 

 variety, however, which never burrows in the ground, but lies beneath 

 bushes, or among the herbage of hedges or woods, and is called by 

 the common people of that part of Hertfordshire which borders upon 

 Bedfordshire, the bush-rabbit, and in the northern parts of the same 

 county, the stub-rabbit : it appears to be unnoticed by authors as a 

 variety. Colonel Hawker, who does not mention it, after describing 

 the methods of killing rabbits in general, says, " if they are shot in a 

 slovenly manner, they will most likely scramble to earth, if there is 

 one near, and so escape," which is true enough of the burrowing 

 rabbit; and indeed, what any animal may do for its protection, when 

 wounded and in pain, it is impossible to say. I have known a 

 wounded partridge take refuge in a drain, though there was a thick 

 hedge-row close to that drain, which was a proceeding at variance 

 with its ordinary habits : and therefore, under similar circumstances, 

 a non-burrowing rabbit may, in its distress, scramble into a hole, or 

 burrow, if there happen to be one in its way, in which to die in 

 secresy ; but, as far as my own observation extends, T never remem- 

 ber one of these bush-rabbits running to ground, even when wounded ; 

 and certainly it is contrary to its habits to do so under different 

 circumstances. 



3. The Woodcock. That there is a small variety of this bird 

 (which may eventually prove a distinct species), I have long been 

 aware, as many sportsmen must be also, but it has never, I believe, 

 been generally noticed. Latham, indeed, speaks of two varieties of 

 the common bird, and even describes three ; but mentions them more 

 as occasional deviations, than as possessing any permanent points of 

 difference : yet the distinctive characters of the smaller bird in ques- 

 tion are beyond what we should ordinarily assign to an accidental 

 variety. It is more local, it is true, in its distribution ; but, inde- 



