One of the most inventive and playful works in the collection — a large watercolor that at first reads as pure abstraction but gradually reveals itself as a kind of imaginary map of a living world. Large loose worm-like or river-like forms in yellow-gold and dark brown meander through the upper half of the composition, creating a topographic suggestion — these are rivers seen from above, or geological fault lines, or the paths of something large moving through the world.
Scattered through the lower half and along the edges, a population of small creatures and marks that reads as the inhabitants of this map's world: at lower center, a small gray rabbit or hare stands upright, drawn with affectionate specificity — two ears, a round body, visible legs. Beside it, a small mouse-like creature. At lower left, a bird in flight. At right, a small pink plant or creature. These inhabitants are tiny relative to the ground they occupy, like figures in an illuminated medieval map.
At upper left, a yellow letter form — possibly a stylized "Z" or a numeral — floats in the composition as a cartographic annotation. Small marks throughout — pink dots, blue marks, scattered color accents — complete the sense of a world densely populated at the microscopic scale.
The rabbit is the most precisely drawn element and the most endearing. Sidney drew this animal with the care and affection of someone who has looked at rabbits and found them worth understanding. Among all the imaginary creatures in the collection, this rabbit is real.