on nro LS A eae Ta hen Hee hE lm 
8 RABBIY. 
overspread entire districts and become a terribly 
devastating nuisance. In the time of the an- 
cient Romans, it so swarmed in all the Balearic 
Islands that the inhabitants were obliged to im- 
plore a military force from the Emperor Augustus 
to exterminate it; and in quite recent times, it so 
greatly oppressed the Island of Minorca that the 
population had to be called out by the Governor 
during two days in every year to destroy it. It 
becomes capable of breeding at six months 
old, and can breed seven times in the year, 
and produces from 5 to 10 young ones in each 
brood, and lives to the age of 8 or 9 years. One 
calculation supposes that, in four years, a pair 
may multiply to the number of 478,062 ; and an- 
other that they may multiply even to 1,274,840. 
But though the latter calculation seems quite 
within the limits of possibility, even the former 
is probably never, or at least scarcely ever, within 
the limits of fact. A curious circumstance is, 
that, from the moment of birth till they reach 
the age of six weeks, the young are liable to be 
destroyed by the male; and this circumstance 
concurs with the predations of many keen and 
vigilant enemies to keep down the numbers. 
The female goes with young 30 or 31 days; she 
scratches out a burrow about two feet deep, and 
makes a bed of down from her own fur, in pre- 
paration for her accouchement; and she tends and 
suckles her young with wonderful solicitude, and 
never leaves them except to get supplies of food, 
and does her best to conceal them from the kill- 
ing knowledge of the male, and leads them to the 
warren at the end of six weeks when they cease 
to be objects of his dislike. 
_ The wild rabbit is reared in warrens, in a state 
of comparative liberty. It is valued partly for 
its fur, which is used chiefly in the manufacture 
of hats,—and partly for its flesh, which, though 
not much esteemed in Britain, is yet consumed 
to a considerable extent in our large towns. 
Warrens are exceedingly varied in both charac- 
ter and extent. They are most economical in 
sandy downs, which possess little adaptation to 
any other purpose ; they should be enclosed by 
a wall, both to keep out depredators, and to pre- 
vent the rabbits from making havoc on the neigh- 
bouring fields; and, if not naturally stocked, they 
may be furnished at the rate of three couples 
to the acre, and in the proportion of one male 
to every 7 or 8 or 10 females. Mice, rats, and 
other vermin which may threaten to infest them 
must be destroyed. Any rich soil, besides being 
too costly, is unsuitable on account of the ten- 
dency of a flush of grass to produce a general and 
destructive dysentery. Many ordinary. sheep- 
walks would do well for warrens, but are more 
profitable for sheep-feeding ; and almost all sandy 
or other loose-soiled hills were formerly thought 
to be peculiarly suitable for them, but even 
these are now found, in most instances, to pay 
better when used in some other way. Rabbits 
in warrens are caught either with fold nets, or 
with spring nets, or with a peculiar kind of trap, 
or with the aid of the ferret; and rabbits in 
covers or hedge-rows, started and hunted out by 
dogs, are shot in the way of sport. The best 
time for bringing their fur to the market is from 
October till January; and the best time for 
shooting them is when snow hes on the ground. 
Rabbits in natural burrows or in ill-enclosed 
warrens sometimes prove a great nuisance to 
farmers. “ A correspondent in your paper,” says 
a writer in the Irish Farmer’s Journal, “ en- 
quires how he may prevent the rabbits from fre- 
quenting his land, or how he may stop them 
from burrowing, &c. Last autumn, I planted, 
that is dibbled, a field of wheat; and after it 
came up, I found the rabbits had eaten off the 
greater part of the outside of the land. Wish- 
ing to stop them, I bought some soot, and had it 
thinly strewed over those outsides where the 
rabbits came, and some refuse lime from the gas- 
works over some of the adjoining lands; and I 
do not think the rabbits have ever touched it 
since. Some gas tar poured into their holes, I 
have no doubt, would compel them to forsake the 
same.” 
The tame rabbit can be reared with little 
trouble and at very small expense. It will, of 
course, be kept only in situations where a proper 
market exists for it, or by families who wish it 
for their own use; but were it duly appreciated, 
and properly understood, it might, in many a 
place where it is at present unthought of, and by 
many a family of limited means, be made to 
furnish, readily and economically, a grateful 
change of nourishing and wholesome food. It is 
extremely delicate when used immediately after 
it has been suckled; and it becomes very agree- 
able when properly fed with hay, green plants, 
roots, farinaceous substances, and steamed po- 
tatoes through a period of about three months. 
But thorough attention must be given to proper 
feeding, to dryness, to cleanliness, and to venti- 
lation. The boxes or compartments used for 
rabbits, and popularly termed hutches, should be 
placed on the top of one another round the sides 
of an airy room, or sufficiently sheltered division 
of an outhouse. Single hutches are suitable 
enough for males or for weaned young ones; 
but double hutches, or hutches with two divi- 
sions, the one for sleeping in and the other for 
feeding in, are requisite for the breeding females ; 
and all the single hutches and feeding divisions 
of the double ones, should be furnished with 
troughs for containing the food. The female, 
except at a brief period six or eight weeks after 
she has brought forth, ought always to be kept 
completely inaccessible to the male; and when- 
ever her time of accouchement approaches, she 
must be furnished with a little hay. 
A method of keeping tame rabbits in a manner 
approaching the liberty and wildness of the war- 
ren, has been recommended as follows :—* In any 
part of the premises that may be considered 
I ES a 
