9HS BABBIT. 



green-meat, is to 00111160111 him to certain geonring, and prolbably 

 to death. Their green food should consist chiefly of carrots, 

 turnips, artichokes, the stumps and ribs of cabbage, cooked 

 potatoes (better baked than any other way), grass, strawberry- 

 leaves, cow- parsley, and dandelion. Some folks seriously re- 

 commend wild parsnip or hog-weed for rabbits ; • but hear what 

 Mr. Mowbray says on the subject : — 



" On moving out of Middlesex to Hants, I took with me a 

 favourite stock of rabbits iri the highest condition. Being par- 

 ticularly engaged for the first fortnight I scarcely bestowed a 

 look on my rabbits. When I saw them, instead of the well-fed, 

 merry, gamesome creatures, as they formerly were, I beheld a 

 parcel of moping, pot-bellied, and scouring creatures, which had 

 lost all the fine solid fiesh put upon them by former high- 

 keeping. On demandiug the cause of this unfavourable change, 

 I discovered it to be in the quajxtity of hog-weed with which 

 they had been daily supplied. This being discontinued, they 

 soon recovered their pristine conditioB." 



On the subject of feeding, a clever writer remarks," Too 

 much food at a time is as bad as too little. Twice a day is 

 often enough to supply them with food, except in the case of 

 breeding does, whose trough should be replenished just as often 

 as she empties it. To a hreedmg doe of full size may be given 

 in the morning a handful of sweet dry hay and half a pound 

 of wholesome vegetables, at noon a pint of good oats should be 

 put into her trough, and the last thing at flight a piece of 

 carrot or parsnip, and a handful of clover, or a cold baked 

 potato and some beans. Grey peas may be given them occa- 

 sioiially instead of com, and if the peas are old, soak them'in 

 cold water for a quarter of an hour. Tea-leaves and such 

 kind of victual should scarcely be reckoned, serving, as they do, 

 rather to amuse the animal than to stanch his hunger. I have 

 heard it asserted that no food is more highly relished by the 

 rabbit than brewery grains and tea-leaves, yet I have always 

 found, when com and these things have together been placed 

 in his house, the rabbit, like a sensible fellow, no more deigned 

 to notice the soft messes than an hungry Englishman would 

 desert English beef for French kickshaws. 



It would seem, then, that the advice coni,eming rabbit- 

 feeding as given by both ancient and modern keepers may be 

 sammed up as follows. 



There can be no doubt that a judicious supply of vegetable 

 diet not only improves the health of rabbits, but also adds to 



