THE NEW FORESTRY. 3 I 



" Now comes the account of the food which is employed. 

 The first day or two some custard is given the chicks in 

 addition to the general food which is prepared. This consists 

 of one boiled rabbit per day, the meat chopped up finely, the 

 scalding broth used to. scald the fresh barley meal with which 

 the chopped meat is mixed; to this is added a, very consider- 

 able proportion of canary seed and dari. No spiced condiments 

 are employed, nor any dried stale animal food whatever. As 

 the birds advance their chief food is dari. How well the birds 

 have progressed, their flight to the higher branches of the oak 

 trees testifies, and they have got on so well that they are now 

 showing colour, and it is quite practicable to distinguish the 

 cocks from the hens. Mr. French has fully entered into the 

 merits of the plan of rearing. No keepers are employed, but 

 his son — an intelligent lad of about fifteen or sixteen, who 

 appreciates his work — is the feeder of the birds, which, reared 

 in this way, require comparatively little attention. 



" If this plan be compared with the usual method of shutting 

 the hens up with their young charges for several weeks, shifting 

 the coops daily, feeding entirely on artificial food, not allowing 

 the old birds to scratch for ants' eggs, or obtain insects and 

 other natural foods, the saving of trouble and labour is mani- 

 fest; and as to the success, it would be difficult to find its 

 parallel amongst those who pursue the old system. You 

 wander about in this covert, and you find ants' nests scratched 

 up, and doubtless other insects are obtained in large numbers, 

 and the birds are now flying out over the four-feet boundary, 

 Seeking natural food for themselves in the fields of clover, 

 wheat, and mangold which surround it." 



SECTION VI. — RABBITS. 



RABBITS. — In our little book on " The Wild Rabbit," which 

 has had an extensive circulation, it is shown how hopeless it 

 is to rear plantations wherever rabbits abound ; and it is there 

 suggested that the only plan of dealing with these vermin, on 

 estates where rabbits are wanted for sport or profit, is to 

 provide warrens of sufficient extent and keep the rabbits there, 

 and exterminate them everywhere else. This can be done, 

 is being done on many estates now, and where intelligently 

 carried out is successful, at least as many rabbits being got 

 as before, and usually more. Instead of shutting the rabbits 

 OUT of the woods, as heretofore, by expensive fencing and 



