IHI! IU3BII. 



is in a nalwral condition. It is to " the manner bom,'' and 

 prefers its snug, gloomy, comfortable burrow to the most 

 splendid prison you may contrive for him. If you insist on his 

 compulsory companionship, and put him in a prison (hutch, 

 you call it) with barred doors, that you may work your will 

 with him, however absurd and fantastic that will may be — tfll 

 his comfortable and decent russet suit assumes tints and 

 colours unheard of in rabbitdom, till his ears grow inches 

 longer than nature designed, and his lithe spine becomes crooked, 

 or " fashionably arched;" — ^if you practise thus on his helpless 

 carcase, and on the carcases of his descendants through many 

 generations, tiU the result is no more like a wild free-living 

 rabbit, than if it were of a totally different species, it is rather 

 unjust to think hardly of the poor creature because it cannot 

 content itself in a box, possessing all the disadvantages 

 of cold and damp, and none of the advantages of ventilation, 

 drainage, and pure air to be found in its native warren. 



Let your first care, therefore, be to provide comfortable lodg- 

 ing for your rabbits. After all, the toonble and expense will 

 really exceed by very httie what it would cost you to build a 

 make-shift residence, and once accomplished, you may depend 

 that you have saved yourself an amount of future vexation and 

 disgust, worth ten times the extra expenditure. How many 

 rabbits do you intend keeping ? If the number is not to exceed 

 half a dozen, then, before all others, the " portable hutch " is 

 to be recommended. It possesses many advantages, not least 

 among which are the following : it is not the least unsightly — 

 it may, indeed, be made rather a pretty object than an eyesore ; 

 it may be kept clean with as little difficulty as a bird-cage or a 

 dog-kennel ; its inmates may most easily be rendered secure 

 from the attacks of cats and rats ; and its site may be accom- 

 modated to shade or sun as occasion may require ; and last, 

 doubtless to the minds of >most boy rabbit-keepers, it may be 

 built easily by the perspective rabbit-owner, provided he has or 

 can borrow a few carpenter's tools, and a moderate stock of 

 that which, unfortunately, must be a natural possession and 

 cannot be borrowed — patience, and a few planks. As I dissent 

 from Mr. Cobbett's opinion that "any one can knock up a 

 rabbit hutch," I wiU describe how the portable hutch should be 

 constructed. 



In shape it should be straight, sided and backed and floored, 

 with a roof slanting equally on either side. The shape is pre- 

 sented by the common' dog-kennel, or more familiar, the gene- 



