in Zoology. See LEPUS, MAMMALIA Index.
The buck rabbits, like our boar cats, will kill the young ones if they can get at them; and the does in the warrens prevent this, by covering their stocks, or nests, with gravel or earth, which they close artificially up, with the hinder part of their bodies, that it is hard to find them out. They never suckle their young ones at any other time than early in the morning and late at night; and always, for eight or ten days, close up the hole at the mouth of the nest, in this careful manner, when they go out. After this they begin to leave a small opening, which they increase by degrees; till at length, when they are about three weeks old, the mouth of the hole is left wholly open that they may go out; for they are at that time grown big enough to take care of themselves, and to feed on grass.
People who keep rabbits tame for profit, breed them in hutches; but these must be kept very neat and clean, else they will be always subject to diseases. Care must be taken also to keep the bucks and does apart till the latter Rabbit have just kindled; then they are to be turned to the bucks again, and to remain with them till they shun and run from them.
The general direction for the choosing of tame rab- bits is, to pick the largest and fairest; but the breeder should remember that the skins of the silver-haired ones sell better than any other. The food of the tame rab- bits may be colewort and cabbage-leaves, carrots, parf- neps, apple-rinds, green corn, and vetches, in the time of the year; also vine-leaves, grafs, fruits, oats, and oatmeal, milk-thistles, fow-thistles, and the like: but with these moist foods they must always have a propor- tional quantity of the dry foods, as hay, bread, oats, bran, and the like, otherwise they will grow pot-bellied, and die. Bran and grains mixed together have been also found to be very good food. In winter they will eat hay, oats, and chaff, and these may be given them three times a-day; but when they eat green things, it must be observed that they are not to drink at all, for it would throw them into a dropfy. At all other times a very little drink serves their turn, but that must always be fresh. When any green herbs or grafs are cut for their food, care must be taken that there be no hem- lock among it; for though they will eat this greedily among other things when offered to them, yet it is sud- den poison to them.
Rabbits are subject to two principal infirmities. First, the rot, which is caused by giving them too large a quantity of greens, or from giving them fresh gathered with the dew or rain hanging in drops upon them. Excess of moisture always causes this disease. The greens therefore are always to be given dry; and a suf- ficient quantity of hay, or other dry food, intermixed with them, to take up the abundant moisture of their juices. On this account the very best food that can be given them, is the shortest and sweetest hay that can be got, of which one load will serve 200 couples a year; and out of this stock of 200, 200 may be eaten in the family, 200 sold in the markets, and a sufficient num- ber kept in case of accidents.
The other general disease of these creatures is a sort of madness: this may be known by their wallowing and tumbling about with their heels upwards, and hopping in an odd manner into their boxes. This disorder is supposed to be owing to the rankness of their feeding; and the general cure is the keeping them low, and gi- ving them the prickly herb called tare thistle to eat.
The general computation of males and females is, that one buck-rabbit will serve for nine does: some al- low 10 to one buck; but those who go beyond this al- ways suffer for it in their breed.
Wild rabbits are either to be taken by small cur-dogs, or by spaniels bred up to the sport; and the places of hunting those who straggle from their burrows, is under close hedges or bushes, or among corn fields and fresh pastures. The owners use to course them with small greyhounds; and though they are seldom killed this way, yet they are driven back to their burrows, and prevented from being a prey to others. The com- mon method is by nets called purse-nets, and ferrets. The ferret is sent into the hole to fetch them out; and the purse-net being spread over the hole, takes them as they come out. The ferrets mouths must be muffled, and then the rabbit gets no harm. For the more certain ta- king of them, it may not be improper to pitch up a hay-
net or two, at a small distance from the burrows that are intended to be hunted: thus very few of the number that are attempted will escape.
Some who have no ferrets smoke the rabbits out of their holes with burning brimstone and orpiment. This certainly brings them out into the nets; but then it is a very troublesome and offensive method, and is very detrimental to the place, as no rabbit will for a long time afterwards come near the burrows which have been fumed with such ingredients.
The following observations on the breeding and ma- nagement of rabbits and some other animals appear to us to be of such importance, that we shall give them a place in the words of the author.
"In my travels through America," says the author, "I have often been surprized that no attempt has been made to introduce, for the purpose of propagation, that useful little animal, the warren rabbit, of such vast im- portance to the hat manufactory of England. It is chief- ly owing to the fur of this animal that the English hats are so much esteemed abroad. It is a fact well known amongst the hatters, that a hat composed of one half of coney wool, one-sixth old coat beaver, one-sixth pelt beaver, and one-sixth Vigonia wool, will wear far pre- ferable to one made all of beaver, as it will keep its shape better, feel more firm, and wear bright and black much longer.
"The value of the coney wool, the produce of the united kingdom only, is not less, I will venture to say, than 250,000l. per annum; but the quantity is much diminished, owing to the banishment and persecution they meet with on every side, and so many small war- rens taken in for grain land; in consequence of which it is time that some protection should be afforded, if possible, to that important branch of British manufac- tory (in which coney wool is used) from suffering any inconvenience in the want of so essential an article, and the accomplishment of this grand object I conceive per- fectly easy.
"General Observations.—When I speak of the war- ren rabbit, I have to observe, that there are in England, as well as in most parts of Europe, three other kinds, viz. the tame rabbit, of various colours, the fur of which is of little value, except the white; the shock rabbit, which has a long shaggy fur of little value; the bush rabbit, like those of America, which commonly sits as a hare, and the fur of which is of a rotten inferior quality.
"To return to the warren rabbit.—There are two sorts in respect to colour, that is, the common gray, and the silver gray, but little or no difference in respect to the strength and felting qualities of the fur. The nature of this animal is to burrow deep in sandy ground, and there live in families, nor will they suffer one from a neighbouring family to come amongst them without a severe contest, in which the intruders are generally glad to retire with the loss of part of their coat, un- less when pursued by an enemy, when they find protec- tion.
"It is scarcely worth while for me to mention a thing so generally known, viz. that rabbits, particularly those of the warren, are the most prolific of all other four-footed animals in the world; nor do I apprehend any difficulty would attend the exporting this little quadruped with safety to any distance, provided it was kept dry, and regularly supplied with clean sweet food, and a due regard to the cleanliness of the boxes or places of confinement.
"Twelve or fifteen pair of these valuable animals taken to Upper Canada, and there enclosed within a small space of ground suitable to their nature, but furnished with a few artificial burrows at the first by way of a nursery, spread over those now useless plains, islands, and peninsulas, so well calculated to their nature, would, I will make bold to say, the eighth year after their introduction, furnish the British market with a valuable raw material, amounting to a large sum, increasing every year with astonishing rapidity, so as to become, in a few years, one amongst the first of national objects.
"It may be supposed by some, that the above project is magnified beyond possibility, or even probability; but the serious attention I have paid to the subject, these many years past, as to all points for and against, leaves no room to accuse myself of being too sanguine; for, if properly managed a few years at the first, I cannot find a single thing likely to interrupt their progress.
"Some idea of the astonishing increase of the rabbit may be had from the following facts:
"An old doe rabbit will bring forth young nine times in one year, and from four to ten each time; but to allow for casualties, state the number at five each litter.
| In nine months | 45 | |---------------|----| | The females of the first litter will bring forth five times, the proportion of which is 2½ females produce | 62 | | Ditto of ditto third ditto three ditto ditto | 50 | | Ditto of ditto second ditto two ditto ditto | 37 |
Total in one year from one pair 219
"The third female race of the old dam, and the second of the first litter, seldom breed the first year, but are early breeders in the spring following, when we might expect an increase of the whole in proportion to the first pair, if properly attended to and protected.
"It is generally allowed, that hares are not more than one-fourth as prolific as rabbits, notwithstanding, agreeable to an experiment tried by Lord Ribbledale, who enclosed a pair of hares for one year, the offspring was (as I have been credibly informed) 68: these animals, could they be exported to Upper Canada with safety, and there protected within enclosures for a few years, would soon after spread over a large extent of country: the fur is nearly as valuable as that of the rabbit.
"In that part of Upper Canada within the 45 degrees of north latitude, and the southern and western boundaries, the climate is nearly the same as that of England, a little hotter a few days in summer, and a little colder a few days in winter, agreeable to Fahrenheit's thermometer, which I have paid great attention to for some years, comparing the same with the observations of the English.
"The increase of most animals appears much greater in proportion in America than in England, mankind not excepted: that of sheep is very apparent to those that pay attention to their breeding stock, which gives me hopes, that in a few years we shall be able to pay for our woollen cloths in wool. Finding the effect of soil and climate so salutary to sheep, &c. it may be reasonably supposed, that rabbits will answer the most sanguine expectations, as I understand the wool of the sheep retains all its nature the same as in England, particularly its strength, and felting qualities among the hatters, which affords me that rabbit wool from those bred in Upper Canada will do the same; and there are some millions of acres within the latitude and boundaries which I have before described, suited to the nature of the warren rabbit; nor do I apprehend that the wolves, foxes, &c. of Upper Canada will be half so destructive as the poachers in England.
"The guanaco, or camel sheep of South America, no doubt will be a national object at some future period. This is a tame, domestic animal, very hardy, and used with much cruelty by the natives in travelling over the mountains with their burdens; it bears a fleece of wool of from 2lb. to 3lb. which is of dusky red on the back; on the sides inclined to white, and under the belly quite white; its texture is very fine, yet strong; its felting qualities very powerful, and is worth, when ready for use, from five to fifteen shillings per pound. This animal would no doubt thrive, and do well in England, Upper Canada, and in particular I should suppose in New Holland.
"The beaver might be propagated to great advantage in Scotland, Ireland, and northern parts of England. It is an animal, when tamed, very familiar, and will eat bread and milk, willow-sticks, elm bark, &c. and no doubt might be imported with safety; but as these two last-mentioned animals are not likely to be attended to immediately, I shall say no more respecting them for the present."