164 VARIETIES BREEDING. 



hares are the finest in the world, for size, strength, 

 and quality of the fur. Next to those, in point of 

 size, are the maukins, found on the Isle of Man. 

 The weight of one of them exceeds belief, and has 

 been given as high as twelve to fourteen pounds. 

 The hare skins of North Wales are also favourites 

 with the trade, and in proportion to their size bring 

 a higher price than any other, not excepting the 

 maukins of our own high lands. 



" RABBITS are divided into four kinds warreners, 

 parkers, hedgehogs, and sweethearts. Burrowing 

 under ground is favourable, it appears, to the growth 

 of fur ; and the warrener, though a member of a 

 subterraneous city, is less effeminate than his kin- 

 dred who roam more at large. His fur is most es- 

 teemed, and after him comes the parker, whose 

 favourite haunt is a gentleman's pleasure grounds, 

 where he usually breeds in great numbers, and not 

 unfrequently drives the hares away. The hedge- 

 hog is a sort of vagabond rabbit, who travels tinker- 

 like throughout the country, and who would be 

 better clad if he remained more at home. Sweet- 

 hearts are tame rabbits, and their fur, though sleek, 

 is too silky and soft, to be of much use in the im- 

 portant branch of hat-making." I believe I have 

 had Essex and Lincolnshire marsh hares, equal to, 

 if not above, the weight which seems to have so sur- 

 prised our connoisseur. 



BREEDING. The DOE will breed at the age of six 

 months, and her period of GESTATION is thirty or 

 thirty-one days. It should be premised, that the 

 buck and doe are by no means to BE LEFT TO- 



