THE RABBIT 
it does not occur to them to inquire where they can obtain a copy of the 
Act in order to ascertain what restrictions there are upon shooting and 
trapping ground game, and they imagine that they can invite a party of 
guns to participate in a day’s shooting, or, under the pretext of employing 
a professional rabbit killer, allow a friend to have a day’s rabbiting and 
give him a few rabbits by way of reward. This is not only unauthorized 
by the Ground Game Act, but expressly prohibited by the section which 
defines what persons may be authorized by an “ occupier ” under the Act 
to kill ground game with firearms. But it is unnecessary in this place 
to pursue the subject further, since we shall have to discuss it at greater 
length when we come to deal with the law relating to deer and ground game 
in the final chapter of this volume. 
In the present chapter it is proposed to devote a few pages to the natural 
history of the rabbit, indicating some of the points in which rabbits differ 
structurally from hares, showing also the divergence in their habits, 
variation in colour, production and care of young, relative speed, average 
weight, average age attained, power of sv/imming, choice of food, natural 
enemies, unexpected courage in defence of their young, and other traits 
of character little dreamt of by those whose only object in approaching 
a wild rabbit is not to observe its ways, but to take its life. 
The structural differences between a rabbit and a hare are chiefly 
apparent in the skull, and the relative length of the ears, and hind limbs, 
which are much shorter in the rabbit than in the hare. In the latter animal 
we note the greater complexity of the maxillo-turbinal bones. The denti- 
tion in both hare and rabbit is typical of a rodent or gnawing animal. 
Four large incisors, two in the upper and two in the lower jaw, are formed 
of dentine or hard bone, the front surfaces being composed of layers of 
very hard enamel. In the natural condition these teeth are in opposition, 
and wear each other away in the act of gnawing. The hard enamel in the 
upper pair cuts away the softer dentine in the lower, leaving the sharp 
front edge of enamel standing up like the edge of a chisel, and the lower 
perform the same duty for the upper. Thus four sharp chisel-edged teeth 
are formed which act most efficiently in gnawing the hard food of the 
rodent, such as bark and roots. If by any accident the lower jaw of the 
animal is displaced, as occasionally happens from the impact of a shot, 
the incisors in the fractured jaw are distorted, and do not meet those 
above them; and as they are not then worn away by use, they continue 
to grow sometimes to an extraordinary length. The manner in which 
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