232 THE RABBIT 



or Zola, but the hungry holiday-makers are looking 

 out for the gibelotte. And there is the standard joke 

 that the cat often does duty for his confrere^ when the 

 absence of the head excites suspicion. Though that 

 is, of course, a calumny in most cases ; for cats are 

 less easily come by than coneys. 



In Belgium a profitable business is done in 

 rabbit-breeding. Nothing except the rabbit of Spain 

 can be superior to the wild rabbit of the Ardennes ; 

 but the so-called Belgian hares which are reared in 

 hutches have lost much of the savage flavour. Great 

 pains is taken in rearing them ; they are a large and 

 very prolific variety of what is virtually a rabbit. The 

 hutches have projecting roofs to throw off the rain 

 and are floored with wire gratings ; the rabbits are 

 shifted twice or thrice a day ; the young are soon 

 separated from the mother, and killed under three 

 months. Often as many as two hundred tons have been 

 imported from Ostend in the cold season. Never- 

 theless the meat is insipid and does not commend 

 itself to the connoisseur. With the perfection of 

 refrigerating chambers, the importation from Australia 

 and New Zealand has been increasing fast. That is 

 so far satisfactory ; but the rabbit threatens to be a 

 curse to the distressed colonists. The enterprising 

 gentlemen who sent over here for a few couples have 



