THE RABBII. 



Btocked with varions kinds of rabbits, and produces a Very 

 good income, probably as much as £1,600 a year. One foreign 

 customer has paid as much as £800 per annum for sldns of 

 one particular variety, for the German fairs, whence they 

 travel into Russia and the East." 



In another county, according to the same authority, on a 

 farm of two thousand six hundred acres, a portion only of 

 which was warren, the skins and flesh of the rabbits paid the 

 rent, beside the expense of the warreners. Of those officials 

 there were seven, with dogs and implements in abundance. 

 Besides wages, they were allowed aU the rabbits they could 

 eat, and bread, bacon, vegetables, beer, &c., from the farm- 

 house, to be consumed in their huts on the warren, where they 

 cooked, in hermitlike solitude, for themselves. During the 

 killing season they worked in the night, finishing off at about 

 two in the morning. This took place every night, Sundays 

 excepted. The catch was immediately "hulked," or disem- 

 bowelled, coupled, and then sent off to London in regular 

 vans. During the day false burrows were dug in the portion 

 of the warren to be worked in the evening, which was after- 

 wards partially encircled with a net. When the rabbits came 

 out to feed, they were driven by dogs and beaters into the 

 enclosure. Taking refuge by droves in the false burrows, they 

 were easily caught by the men ; those that escaped thence 

 were intercepted by the nets. One bright moonlight night, 

 when we witnessed the chase, two hundred couple were taken. 

 The dogs not being allowed to touch them, very few rabbits, 

 indeed, were mangled or torn. Stretching their necks was the 

 mode of death. In some existing warrens, rabbit-traps, ' Kke 

 large rat-traps, are made use of, and were occasionally em- 

 ployed here. Five hundred acres ■ of the warren were subse- 

 quently broken up and cultivated, which materially diminished 

 the value of the farm. 



The warren is, however, an affair of too great magnitude to 

 tempt many of my readers to embark in such a speculation", 

 despite the profit to be made. Before, however, we come to the 

 modest and familiar hutch, it will be proper to make mention 

 of two other contrivances for the maintenance of rabbits, and 

 which may have attractions for such as have plenty of money 

 and enough love' for rabbit-keeping to devote thereto a goodly ■ 

 share of it, together with a few spare hours each day. The 

 following is the description of a " rabbit court," planned by a 

 gentleman who should know all about such matters. 



