The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1900-05-11
THE GREEDY RABBIT.
AvoRAcIoUS FEEDER AND A MENACE
TO ALL VEGETATION.

SnOwStOrniS Develop SurhOus
Weather Instinct In "rimid Wat"
A Negro Tradition of How His Up
per Lip Came to BE Cleft.
Scientifically there is distinction be-
tween rabbits and hares, although both
belong to the genus lepus. To the lay
mind they are much the same. Both are
grass eaters, afraid Of their own shad-
ows, with short tails, very soft fur aud
deeply cleft upper lips.
This is how the negroes account for the
cleft: In the beginning, they say, the
Lord made the rabbit among the first
things created and set him to watch other
things as they were made. After awhile
he formed the moon, gilded it beautifully
and set it up beside tree to dry. The
rabbit had charge Of it, but fell nodding
and let Br'er Fox slip in. who began to lick
off the gold. This angercd the Deity, who
flung stick at the sleepyhead with such
force that it buried itself in his upper lip.
Then by way of punishment it was Or
dained that the mark should descend
through all the rabbit generations. The
dark places on the moon, of course, are
the marks of Br'cr Fox's tongue.
Feeble as they are, rabbits constitute
q menace to things ever so much more
powerful. even to man himself, through
their faculty of growing and spreading.
That has been demonstrated over and
over by the rabbit plague of Australia.
Everybody has heard how a homesick
colonial turned loose a few pairs in n
rabbitlcss land and how within Il few
years the pairs had multiplied until they
devoured every green thing in the neigh
borhood and seriously threatened the
raising of sheep. The plague'is not YET
wholly abatcd. although the government
and the flock masters together have spent
a good many million dollars. Trapping,
shooting, poisoning. even the establish
mcnt of canning factories, have only suf-
feed to keep the rabbits moderately in
check.
"Timid Wat" as English folk call him,
is n voracious feeder He graZes closer
even than sheep, and. like the sheep,
delights to season his grasses with tender
bark and buds. Curiously enough. when
forage is most plenty, from April to Oc-
tobcr, he is leahest and lankest. unfit for
eating il full grown. but delicionsly tooth
some if young The minute frost falls
he begins to fatten. Three nights of it
put him in prime condition. He seldom
feeds then save at night. Indeed that is
his favorite feeding time. From March
to mid-AIay he prefers the earliest morn
ing in which to ravage gardens.
All winter long he keeps fat and saucy.
nibbling buds and bark and searching the
dcsolate cornhclds for overlooked nubbins
or grazing off the tcndcrest stalks of
springing winter wheat. He haunts or
chards. too. not only for scattered apples.
but to nip low Ranging boughs and to
girdle young trees. Unchecked lie will
quickly and surely destroy whole newly
set orchard. Indeed until the bark be-
comes hard he is constant danger.
He is even greater pest TO the garden.
Early peas, beets. potato slips, he de-
YOURS in n night unless indeed the gar
dencr has been wise enough to try home
oliathic prevention-that is to say. I'M
less as his peas and beets peeped above
ground he killed rabbit, tore it to pieces
in tub of water, then trailed swab
wet in the liquid all around the plot.
''Timid Wat" has evidently mighty keen
nose. lie will not pass the barrier until
there falls a hard rain. Then. of course.
it needs to be renewed. Similarly Or
chards are protected by running the
trunks two feet up with n piece OF fresh
rabbit skin.
Rabbit mothers pluck soft down from
their own breasts to line the eagthen
burrows In which they rear their young.
There are four or six Of these in litter
and from six to eight filters n year. Like
kittens, the young rabbits are blind at
birth, but inside of a week they get use
of eyes and limbs and in fortnight are
frisking about, seeing life Oh their own
account. They begin to Craze as soon
as they leave the nest, which is nearly
always exposed and but few inches un-
derground.
Snowfall develops in Br'er Rabbit n GU.
rious weather instinct. Ii he hops about.
browsing and friskins. you may be sure
there will come but a very few inches of
snow; if he crouches snugly in grass
tuft, then look out for at least foot. As
he crouches he moves gently back and
forth. now little on this side, now OH
that. Thus he shapes for himself snow
chamber n little bigger than his own
body. BY and by the deepening snow
arches it over, but his warm breath melts
tiny hole in the roof. thus preventing
sufocation. Sometimes it Is two days
before the furry occupant leaves this ref
uge. By that time the snow is commonly
crustcd over hard enough to bear his
weight.
When snow lies thus. rabbit hunters
look close for the breathing holes. Once
found there are two ways open. One,
the pot hunters, is to fall fat upon the
hole and grab Br'er Rabbit as he bursts
up through the SNOW, swing him thrice
around the head. then knock out bis
brains. The other, the sportsman's, is to
rout the cottoItail, but give him Il
chance for his life. never slipping dog
in chase until he has q fair 80 yards
start. Both methods are practiced SO
successfully every snowy winter it is a
slothful farmhouse indeed anywhere in
the rabbit countries which does not have
rabbits by the dozen to broil or stew or
Snothar-Npw York SIM