34 OUTDOOR LIFE IN ENGLAND 



recover, but I should consider it highly improb- 

 able. Rabbits in warrens which are overstocked 

 and have become tainted are also liable to this 

 disease. Sir R. Payne-Gallwey, in his valuable 

 work on shooting", states that it is a wise plan to 

 kill down every rabbit on an estate from time to 

 time, and to restock with animals from a different 

 district ; I am inclined to believe that such a 

 system is most advisable, and conducive to the 

 propagation of good healthy stock. It takes a 

 very short time to restock a manor with rabbits. 

 Many years ago, on the estate of a relation of 

 mine situated in Lincolnshire, there were abso- 

 lutely no rabbits. Being desirous of restocking 

 the ground, he procured some rabbits from one of 

 the Midland counties, and turned them down. In 

 the course of a very few years they had increased 

 in number to such an extent as to ruin the 

 pasturage of the park, and it has since then been 

 a matter of the greatest difficulty to keep them at 

 all within reasonable limits. The soil, being of a 

 light, sandy nature, is most suitable, and they are 

 notorious for their size and the excellent quality of 

 their flesh, fetching a high price in the market. 

 Lincolnshire, Cambridgeshire, Norfolk, and Suf- 

 folk are, perhaps, of all our counties, most suitable 

 for rabbit-breeding ; next to these the chalky 

 downlands of Kent, Sussex, Hants, and Wilts. 

 Such soils provide the conditions which are 

 essential for the purpose, being light, dry, and 

 easily burrowed. 



