What we know about King Darzin is that “King Darzin ruled over the biggest and richest of the animal cities in the world. . .” My guess is that, like Brainglutton suggests, King Darzin is a hare, which is why Rabscuttle was “the same size as one of his children and not much different to look at”.
Great thread. Always loved Watership Down.
Had no idea Rabbits were not native to the British Isles. One of the pages that the wiki article links to mentions that rabbits were quite fragile for the English climate when introduced and needed protection form the elements. This is surprising to me as our rabbits and Jack Rabbits/Snowshoe Hares are very tough and hardy. (And only den for breeding) I had a rabbit a couple winters ago that over-nighted beside my truck all winter. He would hop away in the morning leaving a little midden in the snow. This is in Calgary, -20 C is not an unusual overnight low in winter. In a parking lot. On cold asphalt and ice. I don’t know how the little buggers survive but they seem to thrive.
I was traveling behind a friend on a secondary highway a couple summers ago, and he drove right by a badger crossing the road, with a gopher in it s mouth. As he passed the badger turned around aggressively as if he was going to bite the truck. (This was in broad daylight strangely.) I couldn’t believe it. Those things are mean and fearless. Any rabbit would be well justified to fear a badger. Even one of those cuddly- looking little British badgers.
Rabbits aren’t native to Alberta either, I don’t think. Like you said, jackrabbits and snowshoe hares are.
That’s why they stink and we don’t need 'em.
In human folk tales, we have talking animals who are capable of doing human things, because the story needs the animals to talk or do whatever. Rabscuttle’s tale just a rabbit folk tale, where the needs of the story trumps reality.
I don’t know where that photo’s from, and have set it as my desktop background, but I would put money on it being a composite photo, probably from someone’s camera triggered by a movement sensor or something. I’ve lived in town and country in England for 33 years and have barely caught a glimpse of one badger, despite wanting to quite badly.
That must be it, because it certainly looks like the same badger to me at every location…plus I doubt both the badgers and that cat would be as chill as they are being that close to each other.
Edit: Oh, and badgers eat stoats, voles, and marmots…but in a pinch have been known to eat woodpeckers. (I’m a little sad that whatbadgerseat.com isn’t there anymore…it just redirects to the main Simpsons page.)
I’m tending to agree that this is probably a good piece of photoshoppery, mostly because the full moon is just a little too *right *for the scene.
Dun is actually a Celtic word, unless I am mistaken.
nm
Yup, my Chambers dictionary says “down” in this context comes from Old English “dun” meaning “hill” (which in Britain would predate Old Norse). This comes from the Celtic word “dun”. “Dune” is also cognate. Until today, I would never have guessed that these words are both related to “Dundee” or “Dunfermline”.
And the New Zealand city of Dunedin, via the old name for Edinburgh: Dùn Èideann
And the Florida city of Dunedin. 
Well, damn: a) I didn’t know that there was a Dunedin in Florida and b) I didn’t know that Stirling is twinned with it. I know Stirling very well. 
Small world, really.
Ask your local library about an inter-library loan. Our University library has two copies of it (the full title is: “The private life of the rabbit; an account of the life history and social behavior of the wild rabbit”).
I had that idea, romansperson but I checked NYPL and it doesn’t seem that the system has it anywhere.
Neat! I figured “downs” was a British-ism for “hills” but never knew the background. Thanks!
As an aside, I first encountered *Watership Down *when I picked it off of a list of books we were given in 7th grade. (We picked a book off of a list, the book was ordered for us, and we had to read it for the class.)
All that was listed was title and author, with no descriptive text whatsoever, and I had seen the movie Gray Lady Down a couple of years previously, so I’m sure you can see where this is going…
No, the book was not about ships or submarines. However, it is one of the best books I ever read.
And the plants on the extreme left and right have consistent shadows, but the badger’s shadows are wildly different, even for the ones right next to each other. Plus the badgers are pretty much identical clones.
Nicely done.