WILD BABBITS. 
441 
signal, — a significant bleat from one of the out- 
standing herd, — scampering off with a leap, along 
the ridge, inland.” 
THE RABBIT. 
“Are you acquainted,” my friend adds, “ with the 
fact that Rabbits have long existed in the neigh- 
bourhood of Spanish-Town in a wild state ? The 
furthest date back at which I have traced distinct 
notices of them is in Lady Nugent’s Journal. As it 
is a work printed for private circulation only, and 
not likely to be accessible to you, I point out the 
date at which she mentions them. In an entry under 
the 29th May, 1803 (vol. i., p. 410), she relates the 
incidents of a fire which broke out in the pinguin 
fences of the Government pen, a country residence 
of the Governors, about three miles out in the Salt- 
pond plains. The fire occurring in the droughts that 
preceded the May rains of that year, she sets it 
down as an effect of the sun’s rays. ‘ The grass and 
every thing were so dry that they seemed to burn 
like touchwood. The poor Rabbits ran out of the 
fence by dozens, and many of them were half-roasted.’ 
We have the Rabbit mentioned in earlier writings, 
but so indistinctly that I could not venture to say 
whether the notice under that name does not rather 
relate to the Indian Cony, than the European Rab- 
bit. It still inhabits the Government pen district, 
but, with all its known fecundity, is not common, yet 
not unfrequently met with. The pinguins are to 
these denizens of our fields what the furze covers are 
to the wild animal in England ; but it is remarkable 
