THE RABBIT 
the eyes open. This difference, no doubt, is correlated with the divergent 
habits of the two species; for the very young leverets are so soon able 
to move away from the place of their birth that they do not stand in need 
of the same protection and concealment as the blind and helpless young 
of the rabbit. 
The wild rabbit will begin to breed at the age of six months, and may 
have half a dozen litters in the year. Early rabbits will breed the same 
year. The period of gestation is twenty-eight days, and the number of 
young in a litter is generally from five to seven. 
Instances in which rabbits have produced their young aboveground, 
like hares, are occasionally reported, but cannot be regarded as common. 
A good deal depends upon the nature of the soil in the locality frequented 
by them. For example, on moors where the soil is very wet, rabbits will 
sometimes refrain from burrowing, and content themselves with runs 
and galleries formed in the long matted heather and herbage. In very 
strong ground, too, where burrowing is more laborious, they will some- 
times merely scratch a slight hollow, and make a “ form ” like a hare. 
In some cases in which newly born young have been found aboveground, 
it is quite likely that they may have been temporarily removed by the 
parent from some source of danger, as, for example, the flooding of the 
burrow by heavy rain. In such circumstances these animals will quickly 
remove their young, carrying them one at a time in the mouth, as a cat 
does her kittens. 
Although the regular breeding season with rabbits is from February 
until September, does in young are sometimes killed as late as November, 
but this is not a common occurrence. 
One may tell an old rabbit from a young one by feeling the joints of the 
forelegs. When the extremities of the two bones which unite to form the 
joint are so close together that no space can be felt between them, the 
rabbit is an old one. On the other hand, if there is a perceptible separation 
at the joint the animal is a young one, and is more or less so as the bones 
are more or less separated. Another mode of distinguishing the two is 
by the claws, which, in an old rabbit are very long and rough, in a young 
one short and smooth. The latter also has a softer coat. When fresh killed 
a rabbit will be stiff and the flesh white and dry; when stale it will be 
limp, and the flesh will have a bluish tinge. 
The average term of life in the wild rabbit can only be surmised from 
what has been ascertained of individuals kept in confinement. One 
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