Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1893-07-18
WHAT DO YOU THINx7
Rabbits Eaten and Successfully Rear a
Chicken.

Rabbits .:stci and Successfully Rear
Chicken.
a California rancher named Mar
shall while cleaning out his barn one
morning heard the chipping of a
young chicken near by. The floor of
the barn had been thickly covered
with hay. and this was what Mr..
Marshall was Gearing out when at
tracted by the sound He made a
most careful search without success,
and was about to reach the conclu-
sion that his mind was deranged.
While wondering why he should be
affected that way tame rabbit be-
longing to his children came and ran
to hole in corner and disappeared
underground. At the same instant
the chirping ceased and load was
lifted sfrom MarshalPs brain, as he
now knew the chic6en must be in the
rabbits hole.
But how did it get there? This
was another serious question. about
as hard to answer as the first. There
were no Setting hens on his place
that it could belong to. and if it did
belong to one she would be near by
trying to coax it out
A pair of old rabbits had occupied
the hole for some months, and had
just brought out four young ones.
The father rabbit ran away, but the
mother rabbit ran to the hole every
few minutes. and whenever she went
in the chirping ceased.
Mr.. Marshall puzzled over the
means by which the young chicken
got into the hole and concluded it
would soon die if not taken out. He
laid down on the ground and reached
the full length of his arm, and found
he could just reach the soft warm
nest at the bottom. The little
chicken ran around as if very much
frightened, and finally ran into his
hand and was pulled to the outer
world.
1t was very young, not more than
day old at the most, and was of the
buff cochin breed. These were the
only kind of chickens on the place,
and it seemed plain that it must
have been Matched from one of their
eggs.
The little thing was placed on the
ground, and, as the old mother rab-
bit was near by, it ran under her at
once and peeped out its head content
edly. This was a very peculiar oc-
currence, and Mr.. Marshall reached
down in the hole again to see what
else he could find, as curious things
We're coming from all directions. He
managed to get hold of the lining of
the nest and pulled the whole thing
out. 1t was a finely built nest being
made of paper, wool and straw All
these were carefully turned aside.
and in the center were the two halves
OF an egg-shelL
As the weather was very warm the
rabbits spent a good deal of time in
the hole to escape the heat of the
sun, and when the young ones were
born spent all their time there In
this way the egg was always kept at
proper temperature for incu baton,
and the eventual Matching of the egg
would be sure to occur.
All got along very nicely together,
the little chicken sleeping in the rab-
bit-hole every night. and running
around with the others all day. She
was friendly with the other chickens,
but would have nothing to do with
them until she got so large she could
not get into the rabbit-hole.
She finally left her foster-mother
and roasted in the hen-house, but
always spends several hours day in
her company, and the chances are
she will never forpet that che was
born and raised in a rabbit-hole