36 OUTDOOR LIFE IN ENGLAND 



farming by means of hutches. Under exceptionally 

 favourable conditions it is, I believe, possible to 

 make it a profitable industry. I have been 

 informed that, after three or four years, unless 

 the ground available is of large extent and the 

 hutches constantly shifted, the soil becomes 

 tainted and disease makes its appearance ; and this 

 appears to me to be highly probable. It is, too, 

 very doubtful whether the ground could not be 

 more profitably utilized. For a time such a 

 system would prove useful for the purpose of 

 improving a rough pasture, as rabbits are close 

 feeders, and the manure might also serve to 

 enrich the ground ; but during the period of 

 actual occupation the latter would be unsuit- 

 able for other grazing purposes, since neither 

 cattle nor sheep will feed well on a tainted soil, 

 though in process of time a finer and better 

 description of grass is said to be produced 

 from pastures which have been eaten down by 

 rabbits. 



Unlike hares, rabbits, when born, are blind and 

 hairless. The buck, like the jack hare, evinces 

 the same antipathy to the young ones during the 

 earlier stages of their existence, and will not 

 hesitate to destroy them unless the doe is careful 

 to conceal them. 



The well-known naturalist Ray asserts that 

 hedge-rabbits do not burrow to the same extent 

 as the warreners, as they are called. It may 

 appear presumptuous to gainsay the opinion of 



