What Makes The
March Hare Mad
By NELL JOSLIN STY RON
The friendly nose-twitching Easter
bunny rabbit is tierce when it comes to
mating season. Very few have ob¬
served the rumble that the rabbits put
on under the March moon. But it is
these antics that cause the old saying
"Mad as a March hare."
Two jack rabbits rear up on their
hind legs and start off with a sparring
match. They hit out at each other with
their forepaws like boxers in a ring.
Soon the fight may progress to biting
and kicking. Curiously, during the mad
March season, jacks may also be found
fighting with does. If the doe is not in
the mood, the fight may be in earnest
— and since she is a little larger she can
generally send him packing.
Every Easter, rabbits arc bought for
pets and even the tame ones have to he
handled carefully. There is an etiquette
of rabbit mating — the female is taken
to the male rabbit’s box. She considers
her own box her inviolate home and
resents fiercely any intrusion. How to
tell when she will welcome him is trial
and error, but it is a good idea to keep
them separate when the babies are
bom. Young rabbits arc born blind and
furless, hares, their close kin. how¬
ever. have their eyes open and hair at
birth.
Since they make available pets, a
variety of breeds have been offered
in the pet shops. They are cleaner,
quieter and hardier than baby chicks
which are no longer allowed except in
dozen and half-dozen lots.
Bob and Norma Burns of Haw¬
thorne Road. Raleigh, house an un¬
usual pet rabbit, in a hutch all her own.
She is pure white but does not have the
expected pink eyes. Instead they are
dark ha/el with as elegant an outlining
as on a Maybelline model. She is cer¬
tainly a rabbit queen for a mascara ad.
Her fur is thick and full — the kind that
is called "Lapin" when sold commer¬
cially. There was a vogue for short
evening wraps made of this soft white
bunny fur but it shed terribly on the
escorts' tuxedos and the fashion faded.
Superstitions
North Carolina folklore tends to
think of the rabbit as strong magic. The
devil travels sometimes as a rabbit and
a superstition from Durham County is
that if a pregnant woman secs a rabbit,
the child will have a harelip.
If a rabbit crosses your path, turn
your hat around. This is supposed to
fool him into thinking you were going
in the opposite direction.
Everytime you shudder involuntar¬
ily. a rabbit hops across your grave —
is a Rutherford County saying. If you
arc sitting up alive and well, this is a
little weird.
A rabbit can’t be caught in a newly
made box. Make a rabbit gum out of
old planks, let it set a year and then
begin to use it.
On the first day of each month say.
"Rabbit, rabbit, rabbit." the first thing
when you wake up. and this will ward
olT bad luck for the month.
Of course, the all-time lucky talis¬
man is the left hind foot of a graveyard
rabbit.
Hunters. Note
If a w’oman meets a witch rabbit, she
may prevent bad luck by kissing her
sleeve. This warning from Durham
County does not explain how one is to
tell a witch rabbit from the ordinary
cottontail.
And there are rules for hunting rab¬
bits:
Hunt them after the first w hite frost.
They arc fat then from eating persim¬
mons and frost. On a non-frosty
morning they w ill be poor and not fit to
cat.
If while hunting you see a rabbit,
whistle, and he will stop so you can
shoot him — this from Wilson County.
If a rabbit running ahead of dogs
stops and licks its paw. the dogs will
never catch him.
Rabbits reswallow the contents of
their bowels and in this way with re-
passing it through their bodies a sec¬
ond time, extract every little bit of
nourishment. A folk remedy for mak-
Mrv Robert Burns ond her pet robbit, whose con-
spicuous eyes oppeor to be made-up. os for
о
theot-
ricol performance. 8ut the coloring is reel, ond
о
port
ing people break out with the measles
is to make rabbit pill tea. This Stanly
County prescription would bring on
more than measles if the patient knew.
Gnawing is necessary to keep the
rabbit's incisor teeth ground down,
since teeth are continually growing all
their lives long. This accounts for the
bad habit they have of girdling young
fruit trees when the ground is frozen
and they can’t get at roughage to chew
on.
Rabbits are good eating. The tame
ones taste like chicken but don’t ex¬
pect anyone who has cuddled a pet
rabbit to sit down to rabbit for Easter
Sunday dinner.
TURPENTINE
Drippings From the Tar Heel Press
a little i.r.s. humor
An accountant says a businessman
presented him with several file folders
filled with records preparatory to
compiling his tax return.
" This." the businessman explained,
"contains my expenses. This one has
my payroll, and this one my accounts
deceivable."
Which recalls the story of a minister
answering his phone to hear a voice
say. "This is the Internal Revenue
Service. We’re just checking on one of
your member’s tax returns. Did a cer¬
tain Gene Murphy give the church a
$5 .(XX) contribution last year?"
Thinking fast, the minister replied.
"The check hasn’t arrived yet. but
we’ll have it in a few days. All I’ll have
to do is remind him of it." — Billy
Arthur in The Chapel Hill Newspa¬
per
THE STATE.
МАЯСИ1В80
