Practical Game-Preserving. 284 



ist March to ist May, they dwell almost entirely in 

 burrows constructed in hedgerows or in banks or in the 

 ground, and are careful to find their feeding-places as near 

 their burrows as possible. In summer, provided they be 

 unmolested, rabbits delight to pass their time in the open 

 air, basking in the sun, or sheltered from the mid-day heat 

 under some branch of bracken or bramble, perhaps, also, 

 at the root of a tree, but in all cases within easy reach of 

 the sheltering burrow, so that should danger or inclemency 

 of weather threaten, they may at once retreat to it. They 

 also affect the coverts during summer, one of open copse or 

 brake being preferred. During autumn, the spring and 

 summer haunts are in equal favour, according to the state 

 of the weather. In winter small and warm burrows are 

 sought, and one that leads under a large tree or a stone is 

 preferred. In fact, the warmer the burrow, the less irk- 

 some do the rabbits find the winter, which, to them, is 

 one of no small discontent. Spring is the season in which 

 rabbits do most damage to corn crops, and spring and 

 early summer are the times when the pasture-fields suffer 

 most from a superabundance of them. 



Of the wild rabbit it is often asserted that there are 

 four varieties. In some localities they vary in size and 

 colour, but by no means sufficiently so to warrant a dis- 

 tinction. The only true varieties existent are the result of 

 crosses between the wild rabbit and some kind of tame 

 ones turned down amongst the original conies. The 

 similarity between the rabbit and hare begins and ends in 

 a mere resemblance of form and habit ; structurally, they 

 are widely different and incapable of interbreeding, 

 although persons have often claimed to be possessors of 

 hybrids. 



Rabbits are almost wholly indifferent as regards locality 

 and surroundings, and seem to get on pretty well in even 



