70 THE RABBIT 



exactly i,ooo rabbits to six guns before luncheon. 

 Only seventy of these were killed in the open, and the 

 rest were killed crossing rides, in the part which is 

 wood. The wood is divided down the centre by a 

 broad grass ride, and there are eight cross rides. In 

 August and September 250 live rabbits were turned 

 into the warren which had not been bred there. 

 About October i (or three weeks before we shot) I 

 found the rabbits were very thin, and between then 

 and the time we shot they consumed about fifteen 

 loads of swedes, two bags of Indian corn, and two 

 trusses of best hay. Inferior hay is of no use; 

 rabbits will not eat it, or, if they do, it does them 

 very little good. The hay was placed under sheets 

 of corrugated iron, supported by four ordinary stakes. 

 By this means it was kept dry — a most important 

 thing to see to, for unless kept dry rabbits will scarcely 

 look at it. The swedes were grown on a piece of 

 land inside one of the coverts, which was ploughed 

 for the purpose, and, having the old turf in it, the 

 land required no manure of any kind. Since we shot 

 I have had every rabbit I could get hold of destroyed, 

 and I re-stocked the warren about the last week in 

 January. Altogether about 1,100 rabbits were killed. 

 ' The open part of the warren is land worth, say, 

 \l. per acre to farm, and I have limed all the rough- 



