The Rabbit

Categories: STEEL TRAPS AND THE ART OF TRAPPING.

The rabbit or cotton tail, as he is familiarly termed, is too

well-known to need any description here. From Maine to Texas our

woods abound with these fleet-footed little creatures, of which

there are several American species. They are the swiftest of all

American quadrupeds, and have been known to clear over twenty feet

in a single leap. They are all natural burrowers, although they

often forego the trouble of excavat ng a home when one can be found

already made, and which can be easily modified or adapted to their

purposes. The common rabbit of New England often makes its home or

form, beneath a pile of brush or logs, or in crevices in rocks.

Here it brings forth its young, of which there are often three

or four litters a year. The creature becomes a parent at a very

early age, and by the time that a rabbit is a year old it may have

attained the dignity of a grand parent.



The food of the rabbit consists of grasses, bark, leaves, bulbs,

young twigs, buds, berries and the like, and of cultivated vegetables

of all kinds, when opportunity favors. When surprised in the woods

it manifests its alarm by violently striking the ground with its

feet, causing the peculiar sound so often noticed at their first

jump. The animal is fond of pursuing a beaten path in the woods,

and is often snared at such places. Its enemies, beside man, are

the lynx, and other carnivorous animals, hawks, owls, and even

the domestic cat.



The rabbit is a favorite game with all amateur sportsmen, and the

devices used in its capture are multitudinous. It is by no means

a difficult animal to trap, and a glance through the second and

fourth sections of our book, will reveal many ingenious snares

and other contrivances, commonly and successfully used.



The Box trap, page 103, is perhaps the most universal example of

rabbit trap, but the Self-setting trap, page 110, and Double-ender,

page 109, are also equally effective where the animal is desired

to be taken alive. If this is not an object, the snare is to be

recommended as simple in construction and sure in its result.




The above constitute the only devices commonly used for the capture

of the rabbit, the steel trap being dispensed with. On page 109

will be found additional remarks concerning the rabbit, and many

hints no baiting, etc., are also given under the heads of the various

traps above alluded to.



The skin of the rabbit is very thin and tender, and should be carefully

removed, either as described for the fox, or in the ordinary method,

by incision up the belly. Full directions for curing and tanning

the skins will be found under its proper head in a later portion

of this work.