176 Practical Game Preserving. 



three feet high, cart sand or gravelly soil and heap it over 

 the mass till it is nearly covered, and in a very short time 

 rabbits will begin to work into it ; if not, make one or two 

 artificial burrows, and about these confine within wire a few 

 couples of the stock, and supply a sufficiency of tempting 

 food. After a while they will become reconciled, and 

 commence the formation of what in time will become a large 

 colony, capable of thickly stocking all neighbouring hedge- 

 rows and other eligible sites. 



We now pass to the consideration of that class of warren 

 which we term artificial, for the reason that they are for the 

 most part dependent for their specific character upon arti- 

 ficial means. Artificial warrens resemble very nearly enor- 

 mous rabbitries, but differ in being entirely of an open-air 

 description, while the others are for the most part provided 

 with a certain amount of cover. Almost any kind of 

 situation or soil is admissible, provided, firstly, that it be 

 not absolutely unfertile, and secondly, that it be situated 

 in a position to warrant its soil being dry and free from 

 surface water from one year to another without intermission. 

 Nor is any description of ground unsuitable if it produce an 

 abundance of suitable herbage, and any expanse of common 

 or the like, of sufficient size, is quite adapted to the purpose. 

 As an example we may mention those tracts of broken 

 land which are so common on many portions of our coasts, 

 chiefly composed of sand and light soil which formerly 

 received its uneven character from being blown into alternate 

 hillocks and depressions before any vegetation appeared 

 to constrain its movements. Such lands as these, where 

 they are sufficiently uneven to be unadapted to aught but 



