188 NUMBER PRODUCED ANCIENT ERROR. 



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 rabbits are 

 those kindled in March. Some days before PARTU- 

 RITION, 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 pur- 

 pose. 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 purpose. Biting down 

 of the litter, or bed, is the first sign of approaching 

 pregnancy. The number produced 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 perceived, because five healthy and 

 well-grown rabbits are worth more than double the 

 number of an opposite description, and the doe will 

 be far less exhausted. 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 

 might be lost ; and if it were intended that no time 

 might be lost in destroying the doe, such, indeed, 

 would be the most successful method. Great care 

 should be taken that the doe, during her gestation, 



