112 RABBITS. [No. 



the carrot, wild or garden. Parsnips, Swedish turnips, 

 roots of dandelion ; for too much green or watery stuff 

 is not good for weaning rabbits. They should remain 

 as long as possible with the mother. They should 

 have oats once a-day ; and, after a time, they may 

 eat any-thing with safety. But if you give them too 

 much green at first when they are weaned, they rot 

 as sheep do. A variety of food is a great thing ; and, 

 surely, the fields and gardens and hedges furnish this 

 variety ! All sorts of grasses, strawberry-leaves, ivy, 

 dandelions, the hog-weed or wild parsnip, in root, 

 stem, and leaves. I have fed working horses, six or 

 eight in number, upon this plant for weeks together. 

 It is a tall bold plant that grows in prodigious quan- 

 tities in the hedges and coppices in some parts of 

 England. It is the perennial parsnip. It has flower 

 and seed precisely like those of the parsnip; and 

 hogs, cows, and horses, are equally fond of it. Many 

 a half-starved pig have I seen within a few yards of 

 cart-loads of this pig-meat ! This arises from want 

 of the early habit of attention to such matters. I, 

 who used to get hog-weed for pigs and for rabbits 

 when a little chap, have never forgotten that the wild 

 parsnip is good food for pigs and rabbits. 



186. When the doe has young ones, feed her most 

 abundantly with all sorts of greens and herbage and 

 with carrots and the other things mentioned before, 

 besides giving her a few oats once a-day. That is the 

 way to have fine healthy young ones, which, if they 

 come from the mother in good case, will very seldom 

 die. But do not think, that because she is a small 

 animal, a little feeding is sufficient ! Rabbits eat a 

 great deal more than cows or sheep in proportion to 

 their bulk. 



187. Of all animals rabbits are those that boys are 

 most fond of. They are extremely pretty, nimble in 

 their movements, engaging in their attitudes, and al- 

 ways completely under immediate control. The pro- 

 duce has not long to be waited for. In short, they keep 

 an interest constantly alive in a little chap's mind; and 

 they really cost nothing; for as to the oats> where is 



