Sources : Rabbit
Pliny the Elder [1st century CE] (Natural History, Book 8, 81): The animals in Spain called rabbits also belong to the genus hare; their fertility is beyond counting, and they bring famine to the Balearic Islands by ravaging the crops. Their young cut out from the mother before birth or taken from the teat are considered a very great delicacy, served without being gutted; the name for them is laurex. It is an established fact that the peoples of the Balearics petitioned the late lamented Augustus for military assistance against the spread of these animals. The ferret is extremely popular for rabbit-hunting; they throw ferrets into the burrows with a number of exits that the rabbits tunnel in the ground (this is the derivation of their name 'cony' ") and so catch the rabbits when they are driven out to the surface. - [Rackham translation]
Isidore of Seville [7th century CE] (Etymologies, Book 12, 1:24): Rabbits [cuniculus], a type of field animal, are so called as if the word were caniculus, because they are seized or driven out of their holes by hunting packs of dogs [canis]. - [Barney, Lewis, et. al. translation]
Thomas of Cantimpré [circa 1200-1272 CE] (Liber de natura rerum, Quadrupeds 4.25): The rabbit is a small beast, almost similar in color and shape to the hare. This beast digs up the earth in its burrow dwellings and demolishes the vineyard as much as possible, grazing the vines and the crops at night. But in the morning, when it enters the burrow, the mouth of the burrow is leveled with dust throughout the interior, so that people coming over may not discover its dwelling during the day. Wherever they live, they multiply too much; for they give birth several times a year. When some of the rabbits feel something adverse in the place where they live, others flee. And without delay, the rest of the rabbits leave the place with them and flee. For they are of innumerable fertility. As they gather together to graze, if they hear anything suspicious, they strike the ground with their feet, and then they all cower with lowered heads. - [Badke translation/paraphrase]