Concord, Mass.
1901.
June 2
(No 7)
  On May 21st Mr. J.W. Long found a Cotton-tail
Rabbits nest at the farm. It was about thirty yards 
from the house that I am building at the head of the orchard,
in a piece of open, woody ground among some pines a
foot or two high that were set out there last year.
The nest was a nearly circular cavity in the ground
of about the size of a cocoanut and beautifully lined
with rabbit's fur. The bottom of the cavity was about 
six inches, the top barely two inches, below the surface
of the ground. The entrance tunnel was slightly to one
side of the nest or rather it did not descend directly
& vertically to it but went in at a steep incline.
The earth above the nest was raised somewhat as if
it had been elevated by pressure from below. Altogether
the nest reminded me firstly of an Oven bird's only it
was sunk deeper in the ground. The five young which it contained were apparently
only a day or two old on May 21st. When I first saw 
them on the 27th they were still blind but their eyes
were open yesterday (June 1st) and they had grown
to nearly the size of Chipmunks. They were beautiful
little creatures covered with exquisitely soft fur of a 
dark fawn color. When touched they would bounce upward
with startling suddenness repeating the movement many
times in succession after our hands had been removed.
When first found the entrance was open but on many
occasion when it was visited afterwards the entrance
was found lightly plugged with a thick wad of grass mixed
with dry oak leaves, which exactly reached the surface
covering of the ground about the spot. The old Rabbit has
not once been near the nest although the men watched it
closely. On June 5 Gilbert found one of the young dead near
the nest and all the others gone. There were no signs of it having
been disturbed.
Nest of a
Cottontail Rabbit
69