18 
STRANGE DWELLINGS . 
establish themselves forthwith, and sink their multitudinous 
tunnels into the ground. The favourite locality for the Rabbit 
is a loose, sandy, or gravelly soil, covered with patches of furze 
bushes ; for the soil is easily excavated, and is very dry, and 
the young shoots of the furze yield a food equally grateful and 
nutritious. Moreover, the tangled roots of the furze afford an 
excellent protection to the burrows, and the overhanging 
branches, with their prickly verdure, serve admirably to shelter 
the entrances. 
As is the case with most animals, the Rabbit seeks a quiet 
and retired spot for her little nursery. She does not produce 
her young in any of the burrows to which the general Rabbit 
colony has access, but prepares an isolated tunnel, at the end 
of which she forms her nest. The bed on which the young 
recline is beautifully soft and fine, being composed chiefly of 
the downy fur which grows on the mother’s breast, and which 
she plucks off with her teeth in tufts of considerable size. Any 
one who keeps tame Rabbits may see the female preparing her 
cradle with this soft fur, and note how perseveringly she denudes 
her breast of its covering. 
North America is peculiarly rich in burrowing animals be- 
longing to this order — so rich, indeed, that many curious species 
must be omitted for lack of space. 
Among these burrowers, the Chipping Squirrel, or Hackee, 
or Chipmuck (Tamias Lysteri), is peculiarly conspicuous. It is 
a very pretty little creature, brownish grey in colour, with five 
stripes of black and two of pale yellow drawn along the back ; 
so that it cannot be mistaken for any other animal. Below, 
and on the throat, it is a pure snowy white. These are the 
normal hues of the fur; but it is somewhat variable in point of 
colour, the grey and yellow being sometimes quite superseded 
by the black. 
The burrow of the Chipping Squirrel is rather complicated in 
structure, and is always made under the shelter of a wall, an 
old tree, or a bank. The hole descends almost perpendicularly 
for nearly a yard, and then makes several devious windings in 
