What animal does Alice follow down the rabbit hole in Wonderland?

Alice follows the White Rabbit down the rabbit hole in Wonderland. At the beginning of Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Alice notices a white rabbit wearing a waistcoat and carrying a pocket watch, apparently worried about being late.

Curious, Alice runs after him and watches him disappear into a rabbit hole. She follows without considering how she will get back, then begins a long fall through the strange shaft. The descent leads to the hall of doors and begins her adventures in Wonderland, where size, language, time, and ordinary rules repeatedly behave unpredictably.

The White Rabbit is more than the story’s opening guide. He later appears as a servant or herald connected with the King and Queen of Hearts, and Alice encounters him again after growing too large inside his house. A common mix-up is naming the Caterpillar or March Hare: both are important Wonderland characters, but neither leads Alice into the underground world. The rabbit’s anxious cry, “I’m late,” also became one of the story’s most recognizable motifs.