112 BABBITS. 



are sometimes made use of to supply warrens; and 

 there, in process of time, they become more active and 

 wild. 



The males being given to cruelty, kill all the young 

 ones they can come at ; therefore the females, after they 

 have kennelled, hide them, and close up the holes in 

 such a manner, that the buck may not find them : they 

 increase wonderfully, bringing forth every month ; there- 

 fore, when kept tame in huts, they must be watched, 

 and, as soon as they have kennelled, must be put to the 

 buck, for they will otherwise mourn, and hardly bring 

 up their young. 



In the choice of tame rabbits, you need not look to 

 their shape, but to their colour : the bucks must be the 

 largest and finest you can get : and that skin is esteemed 

 the best that has the most equal mixture of black and 

 white hair together: but the black should rather shadow 

 the white : a black skin with a few silver hairs, being 

 far preferable to a white skin with a few black ones. 



As to the profit of tame rabbits, every one that is 

 killed in season, that is, from Martinmas till after 

 Candlemas, is worth five others, as being much better 

 and larger: and the skin will fetch more money. Again, 

 the increase is more : the tame ones, at one kennelling, 

 bringing forth more than the wild ones ; besides, they are 

 always ready at hand for the dish, winter and summer, 

 without the charge of nets, ferrets, &c., and their skins 

 paying their keeper's expense, with interest. 



One doe will produce eight litters in a year. The 



