Rabbits and Weasels 149 



to migrate on the part of the younger rabbits from the 

 great ' bury ' hitherto their home. Many solitary holes 

 at some distance are then occupied, and the fresh sand 

 thrown out shows that a tenant has entered on possession. 

 In this way one or two take up their residence more than 

 half-way down the hedge towards the orchard. Then the 

 doe seems to have a desire to separate herself at a certain 

 period from the rest. She goes out into the mowing- 

 grass perhaps thirty yards from the ' bury,' and there the 

 young are born in a short hole excavated for the purpose. 

 The young rabbits naturally remain close to their birth- 

 place ; they are conducted to the hedge as soon as they 

 are old enough to run about ; and so a fresh colony is 

 formed. As they get larger, or, say, soon after mid- 

 summer, they appear to show a tendency to roam ; and 

 by the autumn, if left undisturbed, descendants from the 

 original settlement will have pushed outposts to a con- 

 siderable distance. These, having been bred near, have 

 little fear of entering the orchard, or even the garden, and 

 next season will rear their offspring close at hand and feed 

 in the enclosure, using the close-cropped hawthorn as a 

 cover. 



Weasels also occasionally come down the hedge into 

 the orchard for the various prey they find there ; they 

 visit the outhouses and sheds, too, at intervals in the 

 cattle-yards adjoining the house. More rarely the stoat 

 does the same. A weasel may frequently be found prowl- 

 ing in the highway hedge. When a weasel runs fast on a 

 level hard surface — as across a road — the hinder quarters 

 seem every now and then to jump up as if rebounding 

 from the surface ; his legs look too short for the speed he 

 is going. This peculiar motion gives them when in haste 

 an odd appearance. In a less degree, a mouse rushing in 



