174 THE WILD GARDEN. 
anything that can be masticated and swallowed. Rabbits, as a rule, 
prefer to nibble over a pasture that contains short, sweet, wholesome 
grass, and a proportion of clover, dandelion, and daisies, but in and 
about woods where rabbits are numerous, the grass, from being closely 
and constantly eaten off, gradually disappears, and at the approach of 
winter is succeeded by moss, a very cold, watery, and innutritious 
substitute ; then rabbits are driven to seek food from other sources 
than grass, and the bark of small trees, the leaves, stalks, and bark of 
shrubs, and the protruding roots of forest trees, are eaten almost indis- 
criminately. Amongst evergreen shrubs, rhododendrons and box are 
generally avoided, but I have known newly-planted hybrid rhodo- 
dendrons to be partly eaten by rabbits. The elder is distasteful, and 
American azaleas are avoided. I have frequently seen Yew trees 
barked ; mahonias are devoured in these woods as soon as planted ; 
and periwinkle, which is named amongst rabbit-proof plants, is generally 
eaten to the ground in severe weather. Some of the bulbs and flower- 
ing plants named by your correspondent may well escape in winter, 
because they are not seen above ground, and where they grow, other 
more agreeable. herbage appears, so their immunity consists in being 
inaccessible in a hungry time. Where rabbits are permitfied, the fact 
that they require food daily, like other creatures, should be recognised. 
In the absence of wholesome food they will eat simply what they can 
get. A certain portion of grass land should be retained for them and 
managed .accordingly ; a few acres might be wired round, or, to be 
more explicit, surrounded with wire-netting, to the exclusion of rabbits, 
until the approach of wintry weather, when it could be thrown open 
for them. If this cannot be done, and frosty weather sets in, when 
the mischief to shrubs is consummated, trimmings ‘of quick hedges 
should be scattered about, and an allowance of turnips, carrots, or 
mangold wurzel made and doled out daily in bad weather. In my 
experience rabbits prefer newly planted trees and shrubs to those 
established. I have even had the fronds of newly-planted Athyrium 
Filix-foemina eaten, while other ferns have been untouched. ‘There is 
one hint I may give your rabbit-preserving readers: certain breeds of 
wild rabbits are much more prone to bark trees than others. The 
barking of trees is an acquired propensity more common to north- 
country rabbits than others. I should advise the destruction of those 
rabbits whose propensity for shrubs is very marked, and try warren or 
common rabbits from the south of England ; but the best advice I can 
give is to have no rabbits at all_—J. 8. 
