9H The Gray Rabbit ( Le pus sylvaticus). [December, 



Even the domestic cat will take to the woods and become almost 

 a fera, and subsist largely on young rabbits. To man with dog 

 and gun, the pursuit of the rabbit seems to have a fascination. 

 To me, the yelping bark of the hound when he has scented the 

 little thing, is always distressing. Old rabbit hunters claim that 

 the three different kinds of sounds, when the dogs are baying, 

 denote different grades of strain in the hounds. There is the 

 short snappish yelp of the hound of low degree; the whining, 

 yet almost percussive howl which marks the dog of fair and even 

 good points ; then there is that long-drawn, deep-mouthed bay- 

 ing which leaves that ancestral war-whoop far behind — 



This can be heard far away, and denotes the hound of highest 

 strain. I dislike them all, but this specially exaggerated wolfish 

 baying is to me indescribably dismal. But judgments differ. 

 Doubtless the devotee hears music in the frenzy of the howling 

 dervish. I knew the father of a necessitous family. He kept one 

 of these fiendishly accomplished brutes. The man must have 

 had not an ear but two, for music, the one sa a pietist in church, 

 the other as an enthusiast afield ; for he said to a fellow sport : 

 " In meetin' I have my favorite hymn, but the sound of that 

 hound when he has nosed a rabbit, is to me real heavenly music!" 

 As the poor miner declared, when half dazed over the death of 

 his chum, this whole business is " too technical for me!" 



I am so much pleased with the sight of little gray-back in the 

 orchard near my study. With no dog near, he is in an interest- 

 ing repose, and the scene is innocent and pretty. In the confi- 

 dence of safety, it squats, snips off at its base a dandelion leaf, 

 then sits up, and enjoys the crispy dainty. What a picture — ears 

 erect and wide open; and that nibbling or clipping diminu- 

 tion of the leaf, those soft staring eyes, and that funny winking 

 mug. New for that habit of circumspection. Poised on its hind 

 feet, with neck a little stretched, how those lustrous eyes survey 

 the situation, while the ears are set erect and expanded to catch 

 the slightest sound. Ah! it has heard something, and off it 

 goes at almost flying speed, bearing that cottony caudal tuft 

 aloft behind it. If for mere display that white cockade may sug- 

 gest a spice of vanity in rabbit life; but if from other motives it 

 may hint at some serious verities in its experience. If it be the 

 " white feather," who will blame timidity where every hand is 



