AND AMERICAN RURAL SPORTS. 
239 
of treatment, and even dangerous. Although many a 
crib-biter is stout and strong, and capable of all ordinary 
work, these Horses do not generally carry much flesh, 
and have not the endurance of others. On these accounts, 
crib-biting has very properly been decided to be unsound- 
ness. 
It is one of those tricks which are very contagious. 
Every companion of a crib-biter in the same stables is 
likely to acquire the habit, and it is the most inveterate 
of all habits. The edge of the manger will in vain be 
lined with iron, or with sheep-skin, or with sheep-skin 
covered with tar or aloes, or any other unpleasant sub- 
stance. In defiance of the annoyance which these may 
occasion, the Horse will in a very short time again attack 
his manger. A strap buckled tightly round the neck, 
by compressing the windpipe, will prevent the possibility 
of this action; but the strap must be constantly worn, and 
its pressure is too apt to produce a worse affection, viz. 
an irritation in the windpipe, which terminates in roar- 
ing. 
Some have recommended turning out for five or six 
months, but this has never succeeded except with a young 
Horse, and then rarely. The old crib-biter will employ 
the gate for the same purpose as the edge of his manger, 
and we have seen him gallop across a field for the mere 
object of having a gripe at a rail. Medicine will be alto- 
gether thrown away in this case. 
The only remedy is a muzzle, with bars across the bot- 
tom, sufficiently wide to enable the animal to pick up his 
corn and pull his hay, but not to grasp the edge of the 
manger. If this be worn a very long time, the Horse 
may be tired of attempting that which he cannot accom- 
plish, and may possibly for a while forget the habit; but 
in the majority of cases the desire of crib-biting will re- 
turn with the power of gratifying it. 
The causes of crib-biting are various, and some of them 
beyond the control of the proprietor of the Horse. We 
have said that it is often the result of imitation; but it is 
more frequently the consequence of idleness. The high- 
fed and spirited Horse must be in mischief, if he is not 
usefully employed. Sometimes, but we believe not often, 
it is produced by partial starvation, whether in a bad straw- 
yard, or from unpalatable food. An occasional cause of 
crib-biting is the frequent custom of grooms, even when 
the weather is not severe, of dressing them in the stable. 
The Horse either catches at the edge of the manger, or at 
the edge of the partition on each side, if he has been turn- 
ed, and thus he forms the habit of laying hold of these 
substances on every occasion. 
( To be continued . ) 
THE COMING OF WINTER. 
We are in a season of darkness, storms, and mists; of 
the whirling away of the withered leaves, and the introduc- 
tion of complete winter. Rain, hail, and wind, chase each 
other over the fields, and amongst the woods in rapid alter- 
nations. The flowers are gone; thelonggrass stands amongst 
the woodland thickets withered, bleached, and sere; thefern 
is redand shrivelled amongstthe green gorse and broom; the 
plants, which waved their broad, white umbels to the sum- 
mer breeze, like skeleton-ti’ophiesof death, rattle their dry 
and hollow kexes to the autumnal winds. The brooks are 
brimful; the rivers turbid, and covered with masses of foam, 
hurry on in angry strength, or pour their waters over the 
champain. Our very gardens are sad, damp, and desolate. 
Their floral splendours are dead; naked stems and decaying 
leaves have taken the place of verdure. The walks are un- 
kempt and uninviting; and as these summer friends of ours 
are no longer affluent and of flourishing estate, we, of course, 
desert them. 
The return of winter is pleasurable even in its severity. 
The first snows that come dancing down ; the first frost that 
rimes the hedges, variegates the windows, or shoots its fine, 
long crystals across the smallest puddle, or the widest sheet 
of water, bring with them the remembrance of our boyish 
pleasures, our slidings and skatings — oursnow-ballings and 
snow-rolling — our snow-man making — the wondersof hoar- 
frosts — of nightly snow-drifts in hollow lanes — of caves and 
houses, scooped in the wintry heaps with much labour and 
delight; and of scampering over hedge and ditch on the 
frozen snow, that “crunched beneath the tread,” but broke 
not. 
The dark, wet, and wintry days, and the long dismal 
nights of this season, are, however, favourable to fireside 
enjoyments and occupations. Driven from the fields and 
woods, where we have found so much delight, so many 
objects of interest, or employment, we may now sit with- 
in and hear the storm rage around, conscious that the 
fruits of the earth are secured, and that, like the bees in 
their hives, we have not let the summer escape, but have 
laid up stores of sweetness for the time of darkness and 
dearth. In large farm-houses, many useful avocations 
may enliven the evening fireside; and it is now become 
a laudable custom in many superior farms, to encourage 
reading and other means of mental improvement, which 
the continual engagements of a rural labourer preclude 
during the summer. The cottager may usefully, by his 
winter fire, construct bee-hives, nets, mole-traps, bird- 
cages, ect. ; with any of these employments I have more 
sympathy than with the last, however. 
Of all men who pursue rural occupations, the bird-catch- 
