Roaming about like this with the gun, now on the water in the punt, and
now on land, we gradually came to notice very closely the game we wished
to shoot. We saw, for instance, that the rabbit when feeding or moving
freely, unless quickened by alarm, has a peculiar way of dwelling upon
his path. It almost resembles creeping; for both fore feet stop while
the hinder come up--one hinder foot slightly behind the other, and
rather wide apart.
When a fall of snow presents a perfect impression of his passage, it
appears as if the animal had walked slowly backwards. This deceives many
who at such times go out to pick up anything that comes in their way;
for they trace the trail in the wrong direction. The truth is, that when
the rabbit pauses for the hinder feet to come up he again rests
momentarily upon these before the two foremost are put forth, and so
presses not only the paw proper but the whole first joint of the hind
leg upon the snow. A glance at the hind feet of a rabbit will show what
I mean: they will be found to display plain signs of friction against
the ground.
The habit has given the creature considerable power of standing up on
the hinder feet; he can not only sit on his haunches, but raise himself
almost upright, and remain in that position to listen for some little
time. For the same reason he can bark the ash saplings higher up than
would be imagined: where he cannot reach, the mice climb up and nibble
straight lines across the young pole, as if done with a single stroke
from a saw that scraped away the rind but did not reach the wood.
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