92 



KIDD'S OWN JOUKNAL. 



elude fresh air ; for rabbits can no more be in health 

 without fresh air than human beings. It is sheer 

 folly to suppose that any living creature can be 

 maintained in health and vigor without an ample 

 supply of that " balm of life," fresh air. Disease 

 and death are the natural consequences of a 

 vitiated atmosphere. 



Many writers advise that rabbits should not be 

 kept in hutches, but in little houses, so constructed 

 that they may have protection from the weather, 

 and at the same time enjoy their liberty and 

 amuse themselves. This house may be built 

 about four or five feet square, as may be conve- 

 nient; with a roof formed to carry off the rain. 

 The floor should be boarded or paved,' to prevent 

 the rabbits from burrowing, and have hay or straw 

 laid on it. Some boxes must be provided, placed 

 on the floor, with the open side downwards, and 

 with holes at the sides for the rabbits to go in or 

 out. Sliding doors to these boxes are convenient, 

 to shut in the rabbits when necessary. 



In the front of the house there should be a little 

 court or yard railed off, into which, the rabbits 

 may be allowed to run when the weather is dry ; 

 and here they will sport and enjoy themselves, 

 and give you opportunities of observing their 

 pretty antics. 



But this house will only do for young rabbits, 

 or until they are about five months old. After 

 that age they would begin to tear each other to 

 pieces, if left together. All the pleasure you 

 had in witnessing their former harmony and 

 happiness, would be gone. The bucks would fight 

 dreadfully, and the " litters" the does might have 

 would be destroyed ; so that it is necessary that 

 breeding does should be kept in hutches, and the 

 bucks separated from one another. But we never- 

 theless advise that young rabbits should be 

 allowed to have their liberty in such a house, as 

 they will be far more healthy, and will grow much 

 better than when they are cooped up in hutches, 

 where they have no room to exercise their limbs. 

 Rabbits of any age, from the time they are taken 

 from the doe (up to five months old), may be 

 introduced among the " happy family'''' in the 

 house. They will be received with cordiality, 

 and will skip and caper about with pleasure ; 

 just as boys may do who live in peace and love 

 with their companions. 



Hutches. — The hutches should be made as 

 large as convenient, that the rabbits may not be 

 cramped for want of exercise : those for breeding- 

 does must have a partition, so as to form two 

 apartments — one for feeding, the other as a bed. 

 Single hutches, that is with one room only, will do 

 for young rabbits or for bucks to be kept in. The 

 door of the feeding apartment should have wires 

 in it, but that of the bed-place must be of wood, 

 as the doe likes darkness and concealment when 

 she has her litter. It is well to have a sliding- 

 board to divide the two compartments, and to 

 shut out the rabbits when the hutch is to be 

 cleaned ; as it is very inconvenient to do this with 

 the rabbits running about. The floors of the 

 hutches should be quite smooth, that the wet may 

 run off; and in order to facilitate this, a small slit 

 or opening in the floor, at the back of the hutch, 

 should be made, and the hutch itself be put sloping, 

 — a little higher at front than at the back, for when 

 rabbits have much green food, there is a con- 



siderable quantity of moisture which requires to 

 be drained off, that the creatures may be kept dry 

 and clean ; and if proper means be taken to re- 

 ceive this into a drain, it forms a very valuable 

 liquid manure. 



The hutches may be arranged one above the 

 other, around the house, to any convenient height ; 

 only it must be observed, that each row of hutches 

 should project at the back beyond that under it, 

 in order that the wet may not run down into the 

 hutch beneath. If a trough be placed on the 

 floor behind the hutches, it will serve to carry off 

 the liquid manure into some convenient recep- 

 tacle. 



Feeding Troughs are usually made in the 

 form of a long open box, but this is inconvenient 

 in many respects, as the young rabbits get in and 

 spoil the food, and the older ones scratch out 

 much of it, tread it under foot, and waste it. A 

 better plan is to have a swinging board in front, 

 the cost of which is soon made up by the food 

 saved. The rabbits, when they take their food, 

 push this board inwards with their forehead ; and 

 when the head is withdrawn, the board flaps back 

 against the front of the trough. Some persons 

 have a lid to the trough, which the rabbit soon 

 learns to lift, and which shuts down again of itself 

 as soon as the head is taken out of the way. 



There are many kinds of raebits, varying in 

 size, form, color, length of legs or fur, and position 

 of the ears ; but the races have been so continu- 

 ously intermixed and varied, by breeding, that it 

 is a difficult task to point out any distinct kind as 

 preferable. The smallest and short legged variety 

 of the color of the wild rabbit, appears to be the 

 hardiest. Boys generally prize lop-ears ; though 

 they are scarcely so pretty in appearance as the 

 common kind. There is a single or double lop, 

 according as one only, or both ears, are dropped. 

 Smuts, too, are favorites ; either single or double. 

 The smut is a black spot on the side of the rabbit's 

 nose, and a spot on each side constitutes the 

 double smut. Some of these are very beautiful 

 creatures, having a white silvery fur, with rich, 

 glossy black spots ; and they are generally large- 

 sized rabbits. 



Food. — This is an important matter. Babbits 

 eat a very great quantity. You must not think 

 that because they are little animals, they require 

 only a little food. They want much more than 

 you do, in proportion to their size ; and to give 

 them proper kinds of food, in sufficient quantity, 

 and at a low expense, constitutes the chief question 

 as regards their profit. How often do we hear it 

 said, and how generally true is the saying, " Oh ! 

 my rabbits never pay, they eat their heads ofl'," 

 &c. ; meaning, that the expense of the food con- 

 sumed more than counterbalances the advantage 

 gained. Now t this arises from want of knowledge. 

 For the greater part of the year, rabbits may be 

 kept almost entirely upon food procured from the 

 field or garden. Although green food is naturally 

 the food of rabbits, yet, because when injudiciously 

 supplied it scours and gives them the rot, it is er- 

 roneously supposed that it must be almost en- 

 tirely withheld. It is true, that if it be given to 

 them in a wet state after rain, if it consist of one 

 kind of vegetable only, or if it be of a watery 

 kind — a bad effect takes place ; but when the 

 green food is given in sufficient variety, and with 



