NUMBER PRODUCED ANCIENT ERROR. 165 



GETHER ; but their union having been successful, 

 the buck must be immediately withdrawn, and the 

 doe tried again in three days : in fact, with rabbits, 

 this business is conducted on the same principle as 

 in the stud. Like chickens, the best breeding rab- 

 bits are those kindled in March. Some days before 

 PATURITION, or kindling, hay is to be given to the 

 doe, to assist in making her bed, with the flue, 

 which nature has instructed her to tear from her 

 body for that purpose. She will be at this period 

 seen sitting upon her haunches, and tearing off the 

 flue, and the hay being presented to her, she will, 

 with her teeth, reduce and shorten it to her pur- 

 pose. Biting down of the litter or bed, is the first 

 sign of approaching pregnancy. The number pro- 

 duced, generally between FIVE and TEN ; and it is 

 most advantageous always to destroy the weak or 

 sickly ones, as soon as their defects can be per- 

 ceived, because five healthy and well-grown rabbits 

 are worth more than double the number of an op- 

 posite description, and the doe will be far less ex- 

 hausted. She will admit the BUCK again with profit 

 at the end of six weeks, when the young may be 

 separated from her and WEANED. Or the young 

 may be suckled two months, the doe taking the 

 buck at the end of five weeks, so that the former 

 litter will leave her about a week before her next 

 parturition. 



A notion was formerly prevalent, of the necessity 

 for giving the buck immediately after the doe had 

 brought forth, lest she should pine, and that no time 



