Book VII. 



HARE, GUINEA PIG, DORMOUSE. 



1075 



greater weight, better quality, and more profit, which is generally the case in the feeding of all animals. 

 Some fatten with grains and pollard. Mowbray tried wheat and potato oats comparatively, but could find 

 no difference in the goodness of their flesh. The rabbit's flesh being dry, the allowance of succulent greens 

 may tend to render it more juicy ; and probably the old complaint of the dryness of the flesh in Devon 

 beef, entirely fed with hav, might be remedied in the same way. Rabbits are in perfection for feeding at 

 the fourth or sixth month ; beyond which period their flesh becomes more dry and somewhat hard. It 

 requires three months, or nearly so, to make a rabbit thoroughly fat and ripe; half the time will make 

 them eatable, but by no means equal in the quality of the flesh : they may yet be over fattened, as appears 

 by specimens exhibited a few years since at Lord Somerville's show, which were loaded with fat, without 

 and within, like the best-feeding sheep. 



7.')59. The flesh of the rabbit is esteemed equally digestible as that of fowls, and equally proper for the 

 table of the invalid. 



7360. Castrated rabbits might be fattened, no doubt, to the weight of upwards of ten pounds, at six or 

 seven months old. It is said to be successfully practised in 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 

 res])ect to the quantity of corn consumed in fattening, a young buck which weighed three pounds, 

 fit for the spit, was put up in good case in August, and was only one month in feeding, consuming not 

 quite four quarts of oats, with hay, cabbage, lucerne, and chicory ; the skin, silver and black, worth four- 

 pence. 



7.3fil. In slaughtering full-grown rabbits, after the usual stroke upon the neck, the throat should be per- 

 forated upwards towards the jaws with a small-pointed knife, in order that the blood may be evacuated, 

 wliich would otherwise settle in the head and neck. It is an abomination to kill poultry by the slow and 

 torturing method of bleeding to death, hung up by the heels, the veins of the mouth being cut ; but still 

 more so the rabbit, which in that situation utters horrible screams. The entrails of the rabbit, whilst 

 fresh, are said to be good food for fish, being thrown into ponds. 



7o62. The rabbit is a caressing animal, and equally fond with the cat of the head being stroked ; at the 

 same time it is not destitute of courage. A whimsical lady admitted a buck rabbit into her house, 

 when he became her companion for upwards of a twelvemonth. He soon intimidated the largest cats so 

 much, by chasing them round the room and darting upon them, and tearing off their hair by mouthfuls, 

 that they very seldom dared to approach. He slept in the lap by choice, or upon a chair or the hearth- 

 rug, and was as full of mischief and tricks as a monkey. He destroyed all the rush-bottomed chairs within 

 his reach, and would refuse nothing to eat or drink which was eaten or drank by any other member of the 

 family. 



7563. Diseases. No live stock is less liable to disease than the rabbit, with regular and careful attention, 

 such as has been pointed out ; so that any sudden and accidental disorder is best and most cheaply remedied 

 by a stroke behind the ears. But want of care must be remedied, if at all, by an opposite conduct, and 

 improper food exchanged for its contrary. Thus, W rabbits become pot-bellied, in the common phrase, 

 from being fed on loose vegetable trash, they must be cured by good hard hay and corn, ground malt or 

 peas, or any substantial or absorbent food. Their common liver complaints are incurable, and when such 

 are put up to fatten, there is a certain criterion to be observed. They will not bear to be pushed beyond 

 a moderate degree of fatness, and should be taken in time, as they are liable to drop off" suddenly. The 

 dropsy and rot must be prevented, as they are generally incurable j nor is a rabbit worth the time and 

 pains of a probable cure. 



7364. The hare (iepus timidus L., Jig. 910.), if taken young, may be tamed and do- 

 910 mesticated, ana has occasionally been 



nursed by a cat. Sonnini the naturalist, 

 and Cowper the poet, had hares in a 

 complete state of domestication. As the 

 fur of this animal is of greater value for 

 hat-making than that of the rabbit, it 

 would be a very desirable circumstance 

 if it could be substituted for that animal 

 in warrens. Its flesh would certainly be 

 deemed preferable, and in general it is a large animal. It lives on the same sort of food 

 as the rabbit, produces generally three young ones at a time, and breeds at least three 

 times in a year. It is not improbable that in some situations, where the soil is dry and 

 poor, a hare warren or pack might be found to answer ; the price in the metropolis being 

 never less than ten times that of rabbits. 



7365. There is a hare warren near Banstead Downs : it contains about three acres of ground : 200 

 brace are usually kept in it : they are fed in the summer on clover, rape, &c. ; and in the winter, on hay. 

 The warren is surrounded by a brick wall about ten feet high, with openings at regular distances, within 

 which are wire gratings on hinges : these give way to the hares, when they enter the warren ; and they 

 are so constructed, that they immediately close after them, and so prevent their escape. 



7366. The Guinea pig, or restless Cavy (Cdvia Cobaya h.,Jig. 911.), is a native of 

 911 Brazil, but domesticated in Europe, and treated and 



used like the tame rabbit. In Italy, the flesh is con- 

 sidered a delicacy, and the skins are nearly as valuable 

 as those of rabbits. 



7367. The Guinea pig is one of the most prolific of animals, and 

 BufFon calculates that in twelve months only 1000 might be pro- 

 duced from a single pair, as the female has been known to bring 

 forth young when two months old only : the time of gestation is 

 only three weeks ; and she will produce at least every two months. The young are six or seven months 

 before they arrive at their maturity of growth, but within the short period of twelve hours from their 

 birth are nearly as alert and active as those fully grown, and therefore require parental assiduity only for 

 a little time. Vegetables form their food, and on a great variety of these they will flourish and fatten. 

 They drink but little, appear after eating to ruminate, and are extremely apt to be affected by cold. They 

 are uncommonly clean in their habitations, and are often to be seen smoothing and cleansing their fur 

 with particular attention and perseverance. 



7368. The fat dormouse (Ifyoxus Glis L.) is a native of the woods of Germany and 

 Russia ; and has a good deal of the habits of the squirrel. It feeds on fruits, lays up a 

 winter store, forms its nest in hollow trees, sleeps by day, and grows very fat in autumn. 



3 Z 2 



