THE WARREN 77 



brought to this proportion, the greater was the 

 produce of young expected. Great precaution was 

 needed in using these traps, for should too many 

 rabbits be admitted at once, or allowed to remain for 

 too many hours in the closed cistern, numbers would 

 die from heat and suffocation, and the carcasses would 

 be spoiled. The cisterns, therefore, had to be care- 

 fully watched, and when the required number was 

 caught the meuse was stopped, and the trap-door 

 fastened. In this way it was possible to take five or 

 six hundred rabbits in a single night. 



The trap-fence adopted by Mr. Simpson, and 

 already described (p. 68), is an improvement on this 

 method, and has much to recommend it ; but the 

 majority of warreners at the present day are content 

 to get their rabbits by trapping, ferreting, netting, and 

 digging out. A rabbit thus caught always fetches a 

 better price at market than one which has been shot, 

 for the skin is then uninjured, and there are no ugly 

 wounds, nor extravasation of blood beneath the skin, 

 to spoil the appearance of the meat. 



When treating of the natural enemies of the 

 rabbit (pp. 39-44) we took occasion to allude briefly 

 to the stoat, weasel, polecat, fox, badger, rat, and cat. 

 The warrener who knows his business will not tolerate 

 the presence of any of these on the warren if he can 



