Earth-delving Conies. 
163 
The name rabbet-sucker, or young cony, was sometimes 
given to the dupe of any imposture. Shakspeare uses 
the former name in its literal sense :— 
“ Prince. Dost thou speak like a king? Do thou stand for me, 
and I’ll play my father. 
“ Fal. Depose me ? If thou dost it half so gravely, so majestically, 
both in word and matter, hang me up by the heels for a rabbit-sucker, 
or a poulter’s hare.” (1 Henry IV., ii. 4, 476.) 
On account of their abundance rabbits were not 
held in high estimation for the table. Instructions 
are given in Wynkyn de Worde’s Boke of Kervynge 
for unlacing, or cutting up, a cony. The sauce recom¬ 
mended is either vinegar and ginger, or mustard and 
sugar. 
No doubt Shakspeare had often watched with amuse¬ 
ment the antics of these merry little creatures. He may 
have seen, in the evening of a showery summer day, the 
furzy down or the woodland glade at one moment bare 
and deserted, and the next alive with “earth-delving 
conies,” frisking and gambolling on the dewy grass. 
The servants of Aufidius comment on the reception which 
Coriolanus has met with from their master, and discuss 
the chances of a speedy attack upon Rome. One of the 
men declares that, although the enemies of the warlike 
visitor have triumphed for a time, yet Coriolanus has left 
many friends behind him. They have withdrawn from 
his side, and taken shelter from the storm of unpopularity 
that has overwhelmed him ; “ But when they shall see, 
sir, his crest up again, and the man in blood, they will 
out of their burrows, like conies after rain, and revel all 
with him ” ( Coriolanus , iv. 5, 224). 
It is not easy to identify all the animals described 
by the early travellers, but the minute details 
given by Gronzalo Ferdinando de Oviedo in 
his account of the West Indies leaves little doubt that 
