CASTRATED RABBITS CORN. 171 



tain any satisfactory cause for this phenomenon. Is 

 the cause biliary ? Of the two rabbits at the late 

 show, one was white as silver, the other a deep yel- 

 low, yet apparently both equally healthy. 



A laughable incident occurred on the exhibition 

 of Rabbits, at the late Lord Somerville's show. 

 Calling on my noble friend the following day, in 

 order to talk over relative topics, his Lordship said 

 to me with an appearance of apprehension and dis- 

 trust Why, do not you think that rabbits were 

 sent merely for the purpose of throwing a ridicule 

 on the show, and ought they to have been received ? 

 I assured him I thought very differently, and that 

 they were no doubt admissible, being a species of 

 live stock of great consequence as national food, 

 and in universal demand, thence entitled to exhi- 

 bition, like other stock, in their utmost perfection of 

 proof. My Lord was satisfied. 



CASTRATED rabbits might be fattened, no doubt, 

 to the weight of upwards of ten or even fifteen 

 pounds, at six or seven months old. The operation 

 should be performed at the age of six or seven 

 weeks. I have hot succeeded at castrating the rab- 

 bit, but am informed it is successfully practised in 

 the land of capons, namely, Sussex, near Chichester, 

 where, on the average, not one in three hundred is 

 lost by the operation, which is performed at five or 

 six weeks old. With respect to QUANTITIES of corn 

 consumed in fattening ; August, 1813, killed a 

 young buck, which weighed three pounds, fit for 

 the spit ; it was put up in good case, and was only 

 one month in feeding, consuming not quite four 



