THE UABBIT. 



Near the top of the wall of each compartment holes large 

 enough to admit the tip of the little finger, and inclining 

 towards the roof, may be bored. Six to the foot will not be 

 too close for these air-holes. Be sure that the lappets of the 

 grooves of your roof-doors are wide enough, and that the slides 

 work so exactly in them that rain wiU not find its way through. 



The floor of your rabbit-house is a very important considera- 

 tion. It should be of beech, or some other equally hard wood. 

 On this wfll greatly depend whether your rabbit-house is to be a 

 standing nuisance, and a reason for grasping the nose whenever 

 one approaches it, or whether it shall be as inodorous and sweet 

 as a corn-bin. Provided your rabbits are well and properly fed, 

 their evacuations will be chiefly of a dry character, but not 

 entirely, and, though insignificant in quantity, their liquid 

 waste is evil smelling, and pungent in the extreme. Therefore, 

 if the floor of the hutch be of soft wood, it will in a very 

 short time be impregnated with a disgusting effluvia, which it 

 will retain in spite of all the scrubbing and scraping you may 

 give it. The hard wood floor should be slightly tilted from 

 front to back, and close along the back some small holes should 

 be bored. If this precaution is taken, you will hear no com- 

 plaints about " that nasty-smeUing rabbit-hutch." 



All that I have to add respecting the construction of the 

 portable hutch is, that it should stand on four legs, a foot 

 high, and that there should be at either end an ordinary stout 

 iron box-handle, so that it may be easily lifted about by two 

 persons. By-the-bye, there is one thing else, and of importance 

 too : take care that the edges of the food-troughs be bound 

 with tin, otherwise, especially if the rabbit is kept short of dry 

 food, he will bite it into splinters and devour it piecemeal. 



Where a considerable nilmber of rabbits are kept, the port- 

 able hutch will not be sufficiently commodious. In such cases, 

 the ordinary square hutches are generally placed one above 

 another to the height required by the number of rabbits and 

 the extent of the room. Where a large stock is kept, to make 

 the most of room, the hutches may be placed in rows, with a 

 sufficient interval between for feeding and cleaning, instead of 

 being, in the usual way, joined to the wall. It is preferable to 

 rest the hutches upon stands, about a foot above the ground, 

 for the convenience of cleaning under them. Each of the 

 hutches intended for breeding should have two rooms — a feed- 

 ing and a bed room. Those are single lor the use of tho 

 weaned rabbits, or for the bucks, which are always kept sepa- 



