THE RABBIT AS A FARM AND ORCHARD PEST. 331 



Young rabbits are attended and suckled in the nest for about three 

 weeks, after which they are left to shift for themselves. Since 

 usually succulent food is abundant, this is not a difficult task, and, 

 subject to the vicissitudes of climate and the attacks of natural 

 enemies, they soon adapt themselves to an independent life. Ap- 

 parently the mother takes no further interest in the career of her 

 offspring. The male parent is probably never concerned in the care 

 of the young. 



FOOD OF RABBITS. 



Rabbits are strict vegetarians, animal food never being eaten by 

 the adults. They eat all sorts of herbage — leaves, stems, flowers, and 

 seeds of herbaceous plants and grasses, and leaves, buds, bark, and 

 fruit of woody plants or trees. The most succulent kinds, such as 

 young shoots, tender garden vegetables, clover, alfalfa, and fallen 

 ripe fruits, are generally preferred ; but when these fail, any green 

 vegetable growth seems acceptable, and the bark of trees is often 

 resorted to when deep snows cover other supplies or during long 

 summer droughts. 



The common cottontail is fond of frequenting farms and planta- 

 tions and makes its " forms " under brush heaps or in tufts of grass, 

 bunches of weeds, briers, or bushes (PI. XXXVII). It occupies this 

 form, or nest, by day and at night moves about, feeding upon the suc- 

 culent vegetables in the farmer's garden, or the clover, turnips, or 

 corn in his fields. In the fall it feasts upon apples, cabbages, turnips, 

 and the like left exposed in garden and orchard, and in winter, when 

 all else is frozen hard or covered with snow, it turns its attention to 

 twigs and bark of Avoody plants, often doing much damage to 

 young trees. 



The other species of rabbits have similar habits, varying with the 

 environment of the animals. In the West some of the smaller kinds 

 live largely in the abandoned burrows of prairie dogs, badgers, and 

 other animals. 



INJURY TO FIELD CROPS. 



Rabbits feed upon nearly all growing crops, but the damage to 

 small grains is usually so slight as to pass unnoticed. Wheat and 

 rye afford abundant pasture for rabbits during open winters, and 

 this without apparent effect upon the yield of grain. Rabbits eat 

 very little mature grain, except corn in winter, and this is but seldom 

 damaged as long as green herbage can be obtained. 



Clover and alfalfa are favorite foods with all our rabbits, and 

 these crops are badly damaged by them. In the West alfalfa is the 

 principal forage crop over considerable areas, growling often amid 

 arid surroundings. It is green throughout the greater part of the 



