Rabbits (1949)

[Music] friends of mine rabbits that's right BR rabbit or the Cotton Tail or wild bunnies if you want to call them that and I was a boy on the farm I used to shoot rabbits and also when I was a boy on the farm I used to raise uh tame rabbits oh everybody knows about rabbits I guess you remember the nursery rhyme Bye Baby Bunting father's going to hunting get a little rabbit skin to wrap his Baby Bunting in the skin is good of course fur is pretty uh the only thing is it isn't very durable but it is valuable in Industry now these snows are disapp appearing and spr coming along and in the spring young man's fancy lightly turns to thoughts of Love well that goes for the rabbits too and the rabbits are looking about for a home in which to raise their young usually it's done in a holes in the ground around my neighborhood the rabbits are a little lazy about digging their own underground uh homes they just take up the abandoned homes of woodchucks or some other animals but uh rabbits are good diggers when they apply themselves to it as you can see right here there's that chap using his front paws as a bulldozer incidentally this digging under the roots of a tree is a good idea it strengthens the roof of ground home the roots of the tree act as beans there are always two and sometimes three four five six or seven uh entrances and exits to a rabbit's underground home here we're looking at the uh the living room you might call it the main chamber and there's a hole directly above I would call that the bolt hole that's where the uh rabbit could bolt out in a hurry if a weasel or some other uh enemy came after it you see rabbits have very little uh defensive weapon they have their ears their long ears to catch the sound of the approach of an enemy and then they're still dir legs that give them the speed with which to [Music] escape now from a way back uh rabbits have been uh domesticated for uh various reasons first because they make very uh fine pets second because of their value for food and for their pelts for the fur the fur takes a Dye very easily and holds it well so that they can use the fur of rabbits to imitate the fur of many other more expensive animals to put it that way so in this country and abroad I would rather uh think more in Europe than in this country there is a great uh trade in uh domesticated rabbits for the three purposes that I mention that is for fun and for the fur you get from them and also for food and here we have some of the domesticated rabbits you will notice that they're considerably larger than the wild Cotton Tail they are vegetarians of course and here the young lady is gathering a meal for them I know my rabbits used to like clover in particular but let's see what this lady is giving them oh that's a dandelion salad I can see that well that's a little tart but it's good food too oh this is a fine black and white rabbit the uh best black and white variety I think was originated in uh Belgium long ago but now you can get the various Black and Whites uh wherever you uh look for them this is a king rabbit good size one and a fine black rabbit with nice white this is a gray rabbit sometimes called a gray squirrel [Music] rabbit and here is a silver [Music] [Applause] rabbit there are many other varieties of [Music] [Applause] [Music] course now those young on the right uh you'll notice are very dark that's their mother but the young will lighten up as they grow older and get the same color Pelt as the [Music] mother oh here's one of the favorite breeds and one of the most picturesque that's the oldfashioned laier called laier because his ears flop down the older they grow the more floppy they grow now doesn't that middle one uh and and its companions don't they look like a sad blood hounds it's a sad sad [Music] world this uh kind of is called the Blue vienes oh you can get them in all sizes and colors just shop around and this is a white viones and she is preparing a nest for herself expecting to produce a family I said that rabbits uh uh are raised for food and fur and for fun and uh it's profitable to raise them because they breathe so rapidly as a matter of fact there's the story of the little girl who had an arithmetic lesson to do and she had her pet rabbit on the table and she was tapping the rabbit when her mother asked what she was doing she said she wanted her rabbit to do the uh arithmetic problem because she heard they multiplied so rapidly well they do multiply rapidly they have for four or five uh Broods in a year and a brood make consist of anywhere from three to eight or more young ones well you can figure that out and in the uh interim the mother has produced her brood and it is hidden away in the straw there but we'll have a [Music] peek there they are they don't look much like rabbits do they they're naked and blind not a hair on their heads or anywhere else in their bodies of course they're not really blind I mean they are born with their eyes closed it takes some days before the eyes of the young rabbits are open to the World At Large well of course we covered over the entrance to the nest as the mother did but she didn't fool us and I don't think we'll fool her there are the Young on of course they've grown a little bit they've got some hair on them now of course rabbits are mammals and the young get the milk from their mother just the way a calf gets the milk from its mother the cow here they are at The Breakfast Table and the lunch and and dinner table too and also the snack bar and hard at it now they're beginning to look like the convention uh bunny that we see in the Pet Shops and now they're about 3 weeks old and uh really look like uh bunnies or young rabbits so whether they are raised for food for fur or for fun rabbits are very easy to handle and profitable in many cases you see the not only is the fur useful for uh imitating other fur because it takes a dye and holds it but it's also used uh to produce felt hats in great quantities I think there's a cute pair right here I'll take [Music] [Applause] them