THE RABBIT 
to be common, several localities might be mentioned in which there is 
an unusual preponderance of either white or black ones. “ Silver-greys ” 
can be readily reared in the open, and there is no difficulty in keeping them 
apart from the ordinary wild stock; but they have nothing to recommend 
them from the sportsman’s point of view, and the value of their skins 
at the present day is hardly sufficient to warrant any special outlay in 
rearing them. The question whether rabbits and hares ever inter -breed has 
been already discussed in the chapter on the Mountain Hare (page 190), 
and the reader may be referred to the remarks there made. After what has 
been stated above as to the very different conditions of the rabbit and 
hare at birth — ^the young of the former being naked and blind, while those 
of the latter are clothed with fur and with their eyes open, it must be 
apparent that a cross between these two animals is a physiological 
impossibility. 
The rabbit is usually regarded as one of the most timid of animals, 
seldom permitting a very near approach — unless when in a “ seat ” it 
believes itself to be undiscovered — and usually bolting at the first alarm. 
The case is different, however, when a doe has young to look after. Her 
natural courage is then displayed in a way that is often astonishing. In 
defence of a young one she will boldly pursue, and even succeed in driving 
away a weasel, or a crow, and rescue the youngster by carrying it away 
in her mouth. I have elsewhere chronicled several instances of this kind. 
Yet notwithstanding the fierce way in which both rabbits and hares will 
defend their young, we very seldom hear of their attempting to bite when 
taken in a net or when picked up wounded. In forty years’ experience 
as a sportsman, during which time I must have killed, and seen others 
kill, thousands of rabbits, I have never seen anything of the kind happen, 
but I have heard of perhaps half-a-dozen such cases, from which I infer 
that they must be quite exceptional. 
As to the comparative speed of hares and rabbits, some difference of 
opinion prevails. A rabbit is said to run faster than a hare for thirty - 
five yards; and no one would think of comparing the two but for the few 
seconds that elapse after a rabbit is pushed from its “ seat ” — when it 
runs its fastest — and after the hare is started, uncertain, timidly cantering 
off, but occasionally racing away at a speed which few four-footed creatures 
excel. The rabbit, with its short legs, only half the length of a hare’s, 
and its shorter body, twists and swerves aside with a jerky motion, and 
really seems to be going at a tremendous pace. The hare, with her long 
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