DCHP-2

rabbit DCHP-1 (pre-1967)

• n.

  a species of hare, Lepus americanus, especially common in the North, so called because its fur is brown in summer and white in winter.

  See also: varying hare  

  • 1696  (1929)  Today our hunters kill'd 30 partridges and 3 Rabbits.
  • 1743  (1949)  Rabbits in some parts are Very plenty.
  • 1871  (1872)  There is a species of hare . . . mis-called a rabbit, which is numerous, but hardly eatable, as they feed altogether on the shoots of the fir trees. In the winter they turn white.
  • 1954  Rabbits had been everywhere throughout the district in teeming abundance and that meant abundant food for fur bearers, most of whom practically live off rabbits.