184* MODES OF KEEPING VARIETIES. 



the dung is expended at home, the hutches should 

 be littered with refuse hay or straw, perfectly dry. 

 The rabbit-house to contain a tub for the dung, and 

 a bin for a day's supply of hay, corn, roots, or other 

 food, which should be given in as fresh a state as 

 possible. 



There are other modes of confining rabbits for 

 breeding, in which they are left to their liberty, 

 within certain bounds ; for example, an artificial 

 mound walled in, in which they burrow and live as 

 in the natural state, and an island as described in 

 Mr. Young's Annals: methods which are certainly 

 ornamental and pleasurable, as well, perhaps, as 

 more for the comfort of the animals ; but surely not 

 so profitable to the owner as hutching, in which 

 mode also, they may be preserved, with due care, 

 in the highest state of health. On this head I find 

 the following remark in my memoranda for the year 

 1805 : Rabbits at large must always suffer more in 

 point of profit, by loss of number, than they gain by 

 cheaper feeding, exclusive of the mischief they do : 

 and this principle operates proportionally in limited 

 enlargement, as in the unlimited upon the warren. 

 They are quarrelsome and mischievous animals ; and 

 the bucks, when at liberty, destroy a considerable 

 part of the young. A run abroad, indeed, for young 

 rabbits, until a certain age, might be beneficial if 

 growth were the object ; but all rabbits must be se- 

 parated at the age of puberty, or as soon as they 

 become fit for breeding ; they will else tear each 

 other to pieces. 



As to the VARIETIES of FORM and COLOUR, in the 



