The Wild Rabbit Warrens. 171 



rabbit in January, so long as it has a warm nook to retreat 

 to, it will manage to keep body and soul together. 

 Hence the necessity of shelter, in one form or another. 

 Furthermore, the soil, situation, and general character of 

 the proposed warren must be suitable ; but of these matters 

 we will speak presently. 



The pasture upon a warren -farm of the nature described 

 would be very suitable to the taste of rabbits, being succu- 

 lent, but by no means rank ; while, curiously enough, the 

 droppings of rabbits seem to lend most vitality as a fertiliser 

 to those smaller and finer kinds of herbage which rabbits 

 under the circumstances seem to prefer. One rarely finds 

 that coarse, rank, quick-growing herbage is suited to this 

 rodent's taste, and consequently a soil which produces natural 

 herbage having these characteristics should not be chosen. 

 Besides grass, the stock would doubtless require the less 

 frequently the better additional food, chiefly of a root 

 nature, although fodder, consisting of green food, such as 

 clover, vetches, &c., will also occasionally become necessary. 

 Such food might be raised within the precincts of the warren, 

 which should be quite possible in one of fair size, say 150 to 

 200 acres in extent, in which case a certain sufficiency of 

 land should be effectively fenced off and rendered impassable 

 to the rabbits. It will be principally in the breeding season 

 proper that additional food will be necessary ; that is to say, 

 in the early spring, when the first and most important addi- 

 tion to the stock is made ; for at this time the tender and 

 succulent young grass is not so forward in growth as to pro- 

 vide a sufficiency of good food, not only to the more than 

 ordinarily ravenous does, but to their daily maturing off- 



