Rabbit's foot

“ That's my rabbit foot; you won't never have no 'sease 't all an' nobody can't never conjure you if you wears a rabbit foot. This here one is the lef' hin' foot; it was ketched by a red-headed nigger with crosseyes in a graveyard at twelve er'clock on a Friday night, when they's a full moon. He give it to Aunt Cindy to tie 'roun' my nake when I's a baby. ”

“ The Rabbit is a much smaller animal than the Hare, greyer in colour, with smaller ears and feet, and the black tips of the ears so noticeable in the Hare, are in the Rabbit much reduced or altogether wanting. Its average weight and measurements are: weight, 2-1/2 to 3 lbs.; length of head and body, 16-1/2 ins., tail, 3-3/4 ins., ear, 3 ins., hind foot with claws, 3-3/4 ins. It also differs from the Hare in the structure of its heavier skull, its smaller eyes, shorter ears, and lesser specialisation of the limbs for speed in running. ”

“ Over and over they go, bounding and bouncing, snapping from their marvelous hind legs as if shot from a spring-trap. It is the greatest jumping exhibition that you will ever see. To have such legs as these is the next best thing to having wings.
Right in the thick of the fun sounds a sharp thump! thump! Every rabbit "freezes." It is the stamp of an old buck, the call, Danger! danger! He has heard a twig break in the woods, or has seen a soft, shadowy thing cross the moon.
As motionless as stumps squat the rabbits, stiff with the tenseness of every ready muscle. They listen. ”

“ Martin said. “The rabbits make little narrow paths in the snow—thousands of them, running in all directions—and when they are not disturbed and going about their business, they always follow these paths. Now when the rabbit comes to a fallen limb lying across his path a few inches above the ground, he likes to go under the limb rather than hop over it. This simplifies matters for the Indian. He simply hangs his snare in front of the hole under the limb, and is almost sure to catch the first rabbit that comes hopping along that particular path. ”

“ 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. ”

“ When waiting in a dry ditch with a gun on a warm autumn afternoon for a rabbit to come out, sometimes a bunny will suddenly appear at the mouth of a hole which your knee nearly touches. He stops dead, as if petrified with astonishment, sitting on his haunches. ”

“ FLOP EAR IS LOST Under the fence crawled Flop Ear, and, running up to where a head of cabbage was growing, the little white rabbit began nibbling the tender green leaves.
“Oh, how good that tastes!” he said to himself. “I’ll eat my share here, and carry some to the folks at home. I can tell them where the field is, and they can come and get more for themselves.” ”

“ The rabbit, failing to find a cover, hides in the grass and dry rushes; but across the meadow, stealing along the furrow, comes the weasel; and, shift his place how he may, in the end, worn out and weary, bunny succumbs, and the sharp teeth meet in the neck behind the ear, severing the vein. ”

“ With these animals, it is of the utmost importance that the feet, especially the fore ones, be accurately levelled on both sides or ground face, according to the rule laid down, so as to obviate the risk of sprains and dislocations during rapid and energetic movements, particularly lateral twists of the lower joints. By leaving the sole, bars, and frog intact, the foot is not only strengthened, but muscular fatigue is wonderfully diminished, especially in traversing heavy ground. ”

“ Undisturbed he will stay in this [Pg 216] squat for months at a time. Occasionally a rabbit will have two or three squats located over his range, each one so placed that a wide view on every side may be had. If it is along the woods, then he sits facing the open fields, with his ears laid back toward the trees. He can hear as far as he can see, and his nose tells him who is coming up the wind sooner than either eyes or ears. ”

“ There are rabbits on these uplands, as with a painful wrench of the ankle you are not unlikely to discover, when your foot plunges unexpectedly into one of their burrows. There are moles, too, evidently, and slow-worms wriggle plentifully across the path. ”

“ He scrutinised with appraising care a big brown rabbit which came bounding in a leisurely fashion down the tote-road and sat up on his hindquarters near the stump, staring about with its mild, bulging eyes, and waving its long ears this way and that, to question every minutest wilderness sound; and he decided that the rabbit, for all its bulk and apparent vigour of limb, would not be a dangerous opponent. In fact, he thought of hopping down from his perch and putting the big innocent to flight, just to compensate himself for having had to flee from the fox. ”

“ The opposition of the great toe, no longer necessary to preserve the animal's equilibrium—since this is sufficiently secured in a lateral direction by the relation of the two legs—becomes a distinct impediment to land travel, owing to its interference with the movements of the fellow limb and its liability to injury by striking upon the objects among which the animal walks. With the further development of the foot, however, whether degenerative or other, we have not here to do. ”

“ The limbs.—Measure the legs. Are the fore and hind [Pg 247] limbs of equal length, slightly unequal, or very unequal? How do they compare in this respect with the limbs of the rabbit? Make out the main bones by feeling through the skin, and especially notice where the ankle-joint is. Examine the toes and notice how, when you gently squeeze them just behind the ends, the sharp claws protrude, and go back into a kind of sheath when the pressure is removed. Can the animal put out its claws and draw them back at will? ”

“ The head end of the rabbit is anterior, the tail end posterior, the backbone side of the body-- the upper side in life-- is dorsal, the breast and belly side, the lower side of the animal, is ventral. If we imagine the rabbit sawn asunder, as it were, by a plane passing through the head and tail, that would be the median plane, and parts on either side of it are lateral, and left or right according as they lie to the animal's left or right. In a limb, or in the internal organs, the part nearest the central organ, or axis, is proximal, the more remote or terminal parts are distal. ”

“ It may be necessary here to explain what is meant by the above term; when the female rabbit is ready to kindle, she digs an hole, or angle, about four feet long, and about ten or twelve inches under ground, and when she goes out for food, she scratches the earth over the mouth of the hole, or stop, so that it is scarcely perceptible to the eye, in order for the preservation of her young ones from any approaching enemy ”

“ So far as we are able to gather, it is more a result of imprisonment of the shoe than of the foot. It appears, further, to be always a result of the animal being newly shod, and the clinches firmly secured; so much so that it would be probable, with imperfectly secured clinches, that the animal would draw the hoof from the clinches and the shoe rather than the foot from its horny covering. ”

“ The eye is also guided by the grass itself and the elevation of the rabbit’s head above it when lifted in alarm at a chance sound: if the animal is full grown of course the head stands higher. In motion the difference is at once seen; the larger animal’s back and flanks show boldly, while the lesser seems to slip through the grass. By these signs, and by a kind of instinct which grows upon one when always in the field, it is possible to distinguish between them even in tall grass and in the gloaming. ”

“ This effect is more readily noticed in the living animal than in the dead. The texture of the skin in the palms is coarsely granulated, and the palmar lines are indistinct. The great toe sets at an angle from the side of the foot, like a thumb, but has more prehensile power than that of the hand; but the foot is much less flexible, and has less prehensile power. ”

“ Their food consists entirely of grass, which they nibble much after the fashion of our common rabbit. They never burrow or dig holes in the ground, but pass their lives among the loose stones. Who can fail to trace the evidence of Divine care in colouring the fur of this defenceless creature in a garb exactly resembling the grey lichen-covered fragments amongst which he is destined to pass his life? ”

“ The white hare and rabbit tracks—if the smaller Lepus may be referred to as a rabbit—which strew the ground are identical save in size. There are first the marks of the hind feet, side by side, followed by those of the fore feet, one behind the other. Thus it is seen the gait is always a lope or bound, and that in springing the hare brings up with his hind feet nearest the head, alighting, however, on all fours at once. ”

“ Rough’s restless movements on the left sent a big rabbit leaping right across our front. Moving at speed, a rabbit presents much of the poetry of motion. How regularly its limbs curve and straighten, and its lithe body298 bounds in response to muscles hard as steel hidden beneath the soft gray-and-white fur. Yet this one, though blessed with abundant energy, did not get to cover before the principal’s gun spoke. ”

“ The rabbits that we have for pets are of various colors, but mostly white or black, or part white and part black. They do not dig into the earth as the wild ones do, but they love to have their homes in snug little places, like holes.
8. The hind legs of the rabbit are longer than its fore ones, and, instead of walking, it hops along. When it runs, it springs forward with great leaps, and gets over the ground very fast.
9. Pet rabbits that have large ears sell most readily. ”

“ A little further observation will show that this is due, chiefly, to the manner in which their feet are set on the limbs, for it will be seen that the Bear keeps the sole of his foot flat on the ground, and, as his foot is very large, he has something of the awkward, sprawling movement of a man walking in shoes too big for him. The Lion, on the other hand, has his wrist and his heel lifted well above the ground, and so walks, not on the sole of his foot, but on his toes, the under surfaces of which are furnished with beautifully soft leathery pads, so as to ensure a soft, silent footstep. ”

“ Not only has the gorilla developed a heel, but his big toe is much nearer like man's than that of any other animal. This may seem a small matter, but a big toe that turns out from the foot as a thumb does from the hand can grasp branches and is useful in climbing. A big toe that is parallel with the other toes is useful for walking but not for climbing. ”

“ If not alarmed it may then move slowly along by a series of easy little hops, occasionally varied by the single-footed gait of most other mammals. At such times the ears are often raised and lowered as though worked by some mechanism. If the rabbit becomes alarmed, however, it leaps away in quick, springy and graceful bounds, now and then making a high soaring leap as if to command a better view. ”

“ But the time during which each foot, in its relation to the other feet, remains on the ground, varies greatly with different species of animals, and even with the same animal under different conditions. During an ordinary walk, at the instant preceding the striking of the left hind foot, the body is supported on the right laterals, and the left fore foot is in act of passing to the front of the right fore foot. The two hind feet and the right fore foot immediately divide the weight. The right hind foot is now raised, and the left hind with its diagonal fore foot sustains the body ”

“ When she leaves the nest for any purpose she covers up the entrance with soil.
The proportions of the parts of the body of a very young rabbit are markedly different from those of the adult. The head is relatively larger, the tail longer, and the ears shorter; while the hind limbs and fore limbs are of almost equal length. During the first six months of its life the animal gradually takes on the proportions of the adult—with small head, long ears, large hind legs with long feet, and small, upwardly-turned tail. ”

“ The head or skull in all the large lop-eared rabbits examined by me is much longer relatively to its breadth than in the wild rabbit. Many of them have loose transverse folds of skin or dewlaps beneath the throat, which can be pulled out so as to reach nearly to the ends of the jaws. Their ears are prodigiously developed, and hang down on each side of their faces. A rabbit was exhibited in 1867 with its two ears, measured from the tip of one to the tip of the other, 22 inches in length, and each ear 5-3/8 inches in breadth. ”

“ That, however, is an error, for the foot really comprises, in addition to the toes and claws, the first long bone of the limb, reaching from the base of the digits to the first joint. You will see, therefore, that the bird walks on its toes, not on its foot as a whole.
The long bone referred to—called the tarsus—corresponds to the instep of the human foot, that is, the foot proper, while the joint which extends backward, forming an angle with the next large bone, is really the bird's heel. Thus you perceive that most birds walk with their heels high in the air. ”

“ The plantigrade foot is clearly shown in the bear track. That of a black bear differs from that of a grizzly, first in size, second in the shortness of the claws. Usually no claws show, and the fifth toe, which is well developed on both front and hind paws, leaves little sign and often none at all. Frequently the hind foot is set on the track of the front foot in correct register. ”