THE BABBIT. 



They will be lank and scraggy, and consequently as voraciont 

 as so many yoxmg wolves, while the poor mother will be scant 

 of milk and altogether unable to meet their increasing demands. 

 Thirty or thirty-one days is the period of the does going with 

 yonng. The buck should be allowed to visit her a fortnight 

 after she has littered — ^never within a less time. Be as par- 

 ticular as regards this as with the time at which you allow her 

 to commence breeding, or the consequences may be equally 

 disastrous. 



It is a common thing with folks whose business with rabbits 

 is bounded by describing their habits in utterly impracticable 

 books, to assert that the animal in question will have eight 

 litters within the year. So she may, supposing her to enjoy the 

 most perfect health, and supposing her never to be frightened by 

 a stray cat or a sudden gun-shot, or the violent slamming of a 

 door, and supposing that her food invariably agrees with her, 

 and supposing at least twenty other doubtful circumstances, so 

 she may ; but the chances are that she will not litter satisfac- 

 torily more than six times a year. Even five times will yield 

 you a round number of young ones in twelve months ; for if she 

 be a compact little doe (always bear in mind that as a rule 

 Uttle rabbits have more young at a litter than hig ones), she 

 win fairly average ten at a litter, and there you have a grand 

 total of fifty. The fruitfalness of this animal has been the 

 subject of wonder to all naturalists. In a wild state it breeds 

 seven times in the year, and generally begets seven or eight 

 young ones at a time. If we suppose tiiis to happen regularly 

 for a period of four years, the progeny that would spring from 

 a single pair would amount to more than a million. As 

 the rabbit, however, has many enemies, it never can be per- 

 mitted to increase in numbers to such an extent as to prove 

 injurious to mankind; for it not only famishes man with 

 an article of food, but is, by carnivorous animals of every 

 description, mercilessly sacrificed. Notwithstanding this, how- 

 ever, in the time of the Eoman power, they once infested the 

 Balearic Islands to such an extent, that the inhabitants were 

 obliged to implore the assistance of a military force from 

 Augustus to exterminate them. 



To return to our doe. After a night's absence from her 

 fortnight-old youngsters, she should be returned to them and 

 allowed to suckle them a week or ten days longer. By ob- 

 serving these rules, as well as the others laid down in this 

 volume, your doe will breed summer and winter, and deserve 



