SILVER-GREY RABBITS. 139 



side of which was filled with raljLit hutches from top 

 to bottom, all of them inhabited by silver-grey rabbits. 

 A man was constantly employed in feeding and cleaning 

 them, and the manure was found very beneficial, and 

 several dozens were sent for sale every week to London, 

 and that sort of skin being valuable, they fetched a 

 good price in the market. 



I have been rather prolix on the subject of rabbits, 

 and perhaps, in my younger days, as a sportsman, I was 

 not so zealous for their destruction. But I have heard 

 on various occasions from farmers such bitter com- 

 plaints of the mischievous tendency of rabbits, that 

 I am become a decided enemy to their being protected 

 in such numbers as to be a serious nuisance. Some 

 sportsmen who are very fond of this sort of shoot- 

 ing -^nll sarcastically remark, " Now the author is old 

 and blind, and can no longer enjoy the sport, the poor 

 rabbits fall under his lash." 



"Honi soit qvii mal y pensp. 



