254 THE KEEPER'S BOOK 



wise to give the rabbits artificial food by scattering 

 corn and good hay here and there over the warren. 

 Some authorities recommend swedes, but these are 

 better avoided, for, although they agree with some 

 rabbits when they are associated with corn and 

 hay, they are apt to produce intestinal and other 

 troubles. 



It may be as well to quote a more elaborate, yet 

 simple enough, method mentioned by Mr. Lloyd Price, 

 for constructing a warren (Encyclopedia of Sport): 

 " Find a field or rough open space, either partially or 

 wholly surrounded by woods, in which rabbits live and 

 breed. Let this be walled round, and let holes be made 

 in the wall at regular intervals, and closed by wooden 

 or iron shutters at will. Encourage the rabbits to feed 

 in your walled-in ground. Of course the beasts soon 

 get quite at home in your enclosure. A night or two 

 before you shoot, shut down the shutters and the thing 

 is done. An improvement would be to make the shutters 

 of light iron bars, to swing outwards from the cover 

 into the preserve shambles, or whatever we choose to 

 designate the field of slaughter ; the rabbits would soon 

 learn to use these, and as the gratings would swing back 

 of themselves, preventing the return of the tenants, your 

 enclosure would soon fill itself without any particular 

 attention on the part of the keeper. Care must be taken, 

 however, not to leave the huge trap too long without 

 emptying, or else to supply plenty of food inside, or the 

 rabbits would starve." It is perhaps as well to impress 



