WHY RABBITS HAVE WHITE TAILS.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 2623, 4 May 1889, Page 2 (Supplement)

WHY RABBITS HAVE WHITE TAILS.

Oke must always remember that disguiso may bo carried a trifle too far, and that recognißabilitv in the parents often gives the young and giddy a point in their favour. For example, it seems certain that the general grey-brown tint of European rabbits serves to render them indistinguishable in a field of bracken, stubble, or dry grass. How hard it is, either for man or hawk, to pick out rabbits so long as they sit still, in an English meadow ! But as Boon as they begin to run towards their barrows the white patoh by their tails inevitably betrays them; and this betrayal seems at first sight like a failure of adaptation. Certainly many a rabbit must be spotted and shot, or killed by birds of prey, solely on account of that tell-talo white patch an be makes for his shel Nevertheless, wloa we come to look closer, we can see, as Mr Wallace acutely suggests, that the toll-tale patch has its function also. On the first alarm the parent rabbit takes to their heels at once, and ran at any untoward sight or sound towards the safety of the burrow. The white patch and the hoisted tail act as a danger-signal to the little bunnies, and direct them which way to escape the threatened misfortune. The young ones take the bint at ouce and follow their leader. Thus what may be sometimes a disadvantage to the individual animal becomes in the long run of incalculable benefit to the entire community.—From " Desert Sands," in the Cornhill Magazine.