In America, a rabbit delivers eggs to children on Easter morning. In Australia, a bilby handles the job.

The Easter bunny tradition probably came to America with German settlers in the 1700s. The night before Easter, children would make a soft nest for the "Oschter Haws" to deposit colorful eggs. By this time, rabbits had been in North America for thousands of years.

Not so in Australia, where they were introduced in 1859 by Englishman Thomas Austin. Without natural predators, Austin's 20 rabbits soon multiplied and spread across the continent, causing serious damage to pasture land and grass.

Today, Australians concerned about an endangered marsupial called a bilby are bringing attention to its plight by commercially substituting it for the Easter bunny, with Easter bilby cards and chocolate bilbies. There are fewer than 1,000 Greater Bilbies in the wild today and the Lesser Bilby is extinct.

The clothespin bunny I designed resembles more closely the animated kind we associate with Easter. It doesn't have the long, soft ears and soft fur that both the bilby and rabbits share, but it makes a cute Easter decoration, just the same.

Supplies you will need:

• 1 clothespin

• Embroidery floss in two colors

• White paint and brush

• Ribbon

• Foam scraps in pink and white

• Glue

• Pipe cleaner

• Black and pink fine markers.

Paint the round top and one-half inch of the bottom of the clothes pin white. Let dry.

Decide which colors you want to use for a shirt and pants. Secure the end of the thread with a drop of glue on the inside of one of the "legs" just above the top of the white paint. Wrap the thread around the one leg to about one-fourth inch above the split. Continue down the other side and secure the end with a drop of glue. Push the threads together with your finger so you can't see the wood beneath.

Cut the pipe cleaner in half. Glue one piece to the back of the clothespin near the top for arms.

Begin wrapping the thread at the "neck" of the clothespin. Continue down around the body, over the pipe cleaner in the back and down until the two colors meet. Secure with glue.

Cut two small teardrop shapes out of white foam and two smaller ones in pink. Glue the pink shapes to the white ones. Glue both to the back of the bunny's head.

Glue a small bow under the bunny's head.

Add black dots for eyes and a pink round nose. Cut a few bristles from the paint brush for whiskers.

Trim the arms as needed, bend them toward the front and glue on a tiny basket or carrot, if you'd like.