POOK VII- 



THE RABBIT. 



K)23 



695 



turnips, and others of the same sort, which must be distributed over the warrens. It is supposed that 

 turnips answer the best in deep snows, as the rabbits can discover them by the scent. This sort of food is 

 given in the quantity of two or three large cartfulls to a thousand couple per day, and one load of hay in 

 the same time during a storm. It is likewise sometimes the practice to distribute billets of new cut ash- 

 twughs, gorse or whins, and other similar woods in the warrens, the bark and other parts of which is 

 eaten, by which the proportion of hay is lessened in a considerable degree. In great snows it is necessary 

 to clear it away from the ditches or fences to prevent the rabbits from getting over them. 



6598. This sort of stock is mostli/ taken by nets or traps, set in the form of a fold between the places 

 where they run, and those where they feed, the rabbits being hunted into them as they return from feed- 

 ing. Sometimes they are taken by ferrets and terriers. The wold warreners. Marshal says, have three 

 ways of catching their rabbits : with fold nets ; with spring nets ; and with types, a species of trap. The 

 fold nets are set about midnight, between the burrows and the feeding grounds ; the rabbits being driven 

 in with dogs, and kept inclosed in the fold, until morning. But the spring net, when used, is, he believes, 

 generally laid round a hay stack, or other place, where rabbits collect in numbers. It is added that the 

 trap is a more modern invention. It consists of a large pit or cistern, formed within the ground, and 

 covered with a floor : or with one large falling door, having a small trap-door towards its centre, into 

 which the rabbits are led by a narrow mouth. This trap on its first introduction, was set mostly by 

 a hay-stack ; hay being, at that time, the chief winter food of rabbits ; or on the outside of the warren 

 wall, where rabbits were observed to scratch much, in order to make their escape. Since the cultivation 

 of turnips, as a winter food for this species of stock, has become a practice, the situation of the trap has, 

 he says, been changed. Turnips being cultivated in an enclosure within the warren, a trap is placed within 

 the wall of this enclosure. For a night or two, the mouth is left open, and the trap kept covered, (with a 

 board or triangular rail), in order to give the rabbits leave to retreat. 



6599. The annual produce per acre, is mostly estimated at from three or four, to eight or ten couple, 

 yielding a profit of from eight to ten, or even fifteen shillings, where they are conducted under a'good 

 system of management. The produce is the largest on new lands ; however, much of the profitmust 

 always de})end on situation, so as to be near good markets. These animals are in what is termed season 

 from the end of October to the beginning of January, in which period the best skins are produced, of 

 course a large proportion of them is killed in this short time. The farmer often sustains great loss 

 in what by the purchasers are called half skins, quarter skins and racks, sixteen of which are only con- 

 sidered as a whole skin. The rabbits are disposed of by the hundred, #ix score couple being considered a 

 an hundred. 



6600. The breeding and rearing of tame rabbits is carried on in hutches or stores of boxes 

 placed in sheds or apartments of any kind secure from vermin. We shall give a view 

 of the practice as to rabbitry and furniture, varieties, breeding, feeding, and produce. 



6601. T/ie rabbit house, should be particularly dry and well ventilated, as these quadrupeds are very 

 gublect to the rot, and to Uver complaints like sheep. g94 



6602. The huts or hutches, (fig. 694.) are boxes or chests eighteen inches or 

 more high, and from two and a half to three feet wide, generally divided in 

 two {a and b), and the rooms thus formed communicating by a sliding door, 

 the use of which is to confine the rabbits in the inner division (a), whilst the 

 outer, which has a wire door, {Jig. 695.) is cleaned. Generally these hutches 



are placed in rows above each other against 

 one side of the rabbit-house, and sometimes 

 they are placed in the open air, against a 



wall within a wired or netted enclosure. Sometimes they are ranged 

 along the floor ; but the neatest mode is to place them on brackets 

 round the room, or on stands about three feet high on the floor. In 

 both these cases it is to be understood that they are not allowed to run 

 about the rabbit room, the use of which is solely to enclose and protect 

 them in an atmosphere of moderate temperature, and to contain a bin 

 with corn, a truss of clover, hay, and any such food as sheep will live 

 and thrive upon. The utensil for feeding rabbits so hutched is simply 

 a trough (c), which may be formed of pewter, very hard wood, earthen- 

 ware, or cast iron, as rabbits are very apt to gnaw them ; and it should 

 be divided on the surface cross ways every four or six inches to prevent them from scratching and throwing 

 out their corn. Some add ajsmall rack for their clover, but that will not be lost if given on the floor in 

 small quantities. 



6603. There are numerous varieties of tatne rabbits ; but the broad-chested and short- 

 legged are the most hardy, and fatten most expeditiously. There is a large vaiiety 

 of the hare color, which has high colored and high flavored flesh, more savoury than that 

 of the common rabbit ; they make a good dish cooked like the hare, which at six or eight 

 months old they nearly equal in size. Tlie large white, and yellow and white species, 

 have whiter and more delicate flesh, and, cooked in the same w^ay, will rival the turkey. 

 The Turkisli or French rabbit is esteemed by some, but differs little from tlic common 

 variety. All these and other varieties are to be had from the London dealers and 

 poultrymen. 



6604. Breeding. The doe will breed at the age of six months ; and her period of gestation is thirty or 

 thirty-one days. It should be premise<l, that the buck and doe are by no means to be left together j but 

 their union having been successful, the buck must be immediately withdrawn, and the doe tried again 

 in three days : in fact, with rabbits, this business is conducted on the same principle as in the stud. 

 Like chickens, the best breeding rabbits are those kindled in March. Some days before parturition, or 

 kindling, hay is to be given to the doe, to assist in making her bed, with the flue, which nature has in- 

 structed her to tear from her body for that purpose. She will be at this period seen sitting ui>on her 

 haunches, and tearing ofl"the flue, and the hay being presented to her, she will with her teeth reduce 

 and shatter it to her purpose. Biting down of the litter or bed, is the first sign of pregnancy. The 

 number produced, generally between five and ten ; and it is most advantageous always to destroy the weak 

 or sickly ones, as soon as tlieir defects can be perceived, because five healthy and well-grown rabbits are 

 worth more than double the number of an opposite description, and the doe will be far less exhausted. 

 She will admit the buck again with profit at the end of six weeks, when the young may be separated from 

 her and weaned. Or the young may be suckled two months, the doe taken back at the end of five weeks, 

 so that the former litter will leave her about a week before her next parturition. A notion was formerly 

 prevalent, of the necessity for giving the buck immediately after the doe had brought forth, lest she should 

 pine, and that no time might be lost; and if it were intended that no time might be lost in destroying the 

 doe, such indeed, would be the most successful method. Great care should be taken that the doe, during 

 her gestation, be not approached by the buck, or indeed by any other rabbit ; as, from being harassed 

 about, she will almost certainly cast her young. One doe in a thousand may devour her young ; the.sign 



