Rensselaer Republican, Volume 12, Number 45, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 July 1880 — Mother Lore. [ARTICLE]

Mother Lore.

, An incident has just come under my See which so entirely conflicts with my aas in regard to the fighting qualities of wild rabbits, that I give it for an extrema oddity. During the morning, one of my children came in with a very white lace, and an account of a large white snake just seen in the back yard. A few minutes later a peculiar squalling or crying in the quarter where the snake was attracted my-attention, and running hastily in that direction I Was astonished to see the last half of a long chicken snake projecting from under a picket fence, and a wild rabbit biting and stamping on it, apparently making a determined effort to hold on and prevent the snake from going entirely under. A second later, and before my presence was noticed by the combatants, the cause of the rabbits’s efforts and of the peculiar noise was manifested by the appearance on one side of the fence of the snake’s head with a tiny rabbit in its jaws. Tbs little rabbit was held by the hind quarters and was struggling and crying vigorously for the liberty that a blow from my stick, administered to the back of the snake, secured to it. The little fellow seemed unin iured, and ran off a rod or so, where the mother rabbit, who had retreated a little at my near approach, joined it, and leading the way at a deliberate gait, took it to the woods nearby. It was the strongest evidence of a mother’s love and care for its offspring I have ever seen or heard of, and is the only instance I have ever known of a rabbit showing the slightest aggressive disposition; in Act, I had supposed they were entirely

Without any.

W. S. WARNE.