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RABBIT, cunhulus, in zoology, a well known ani- mal of the hare kind. See the article Lepus. The female, or doe rabbit goes with young thirty days, and then fhe kindles; and if me take not buck prefently fhe lofes her month, or at leaft a fortnight, and often kills her young and eats them. In England they begin to breed at a year old, but in fome places much fooner ; and they continue breeding very faft from the time when they begin, four, five, fix, or kven times a year being common with them. They have ufu- ally from four to feven in a litter, and hence it is that a fmall number at firft- will foon ftock a whole warren, if left to breed a little while undifturbed. The does cannot fuckle their young till they have been at buck again; this therefore is to be done prefently, elfe there is a fortnight loft of the time for the next brood, and the prefent brood alfo probably loft. When the buck goes to the doe, he always firft beats and ftamps very hard with his feet, and when he has copulated with her he falls backwards, and lies as it were in a trance ; in this ftate it is ea(y to take him, but he foon recovers from it.
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 flocks, or nefts, with gravel or earth, which they clofe fo artificially up with the hin- der part of their bodies, that it is hard to find them out. They never fuckle the young ones at any other time than early in the morning, and late at night, and always, for eight or ten days, clofe up the hole at the mouth of the neft, in this careful manner, when they go out. After this they begin to leave a fmall opening, which they encreafe 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 themfelves, and to feed on grafs. People who keep rabbits tame for profit, breed them in hutches, but thefe muft be kept very neat and clean, elfe they will be always fubjecT: to difeafes. Care muft be taken alfo to keep the bucks and does apart till the latter have juft kindled, then they are to be turned to the bucks again, and to remain with them till they fhun and run from them.
The general direction for the chufing of tame rabbits is, to pick the largeft and faireft, but the breeder fhould remember that the fkins of the filver haired ones fell better than any other. The food of the tame rabbits may be colewort and cabbage leaves, carrots, parfneps, apple rinds, green corn, and vetches, in the time of the year ; alfo vine leaves, grafs, fruits, oats, and oatmeal, milk-thiftles, fow- thiftles, and the like ; but with thefe moift foods they muft always have a proportionable quantity of the dry foods, as hay, bread, oats, bran, and the like, otherwife they will grow pot-bellied, and die. Bran and grains mixed to- gether have been alfo found to be very good food. In winter they will eat hay, oats, and chaff", and thefe may be given them three times a day ; but when they eat green things, it muft be obferved that they are not to drink at all, for it would throw them into a dropfy. At all other times a very little drink ferves their turn, but that muft always be frefii. When any green herbs, or grafs, are cut for their food, care muft be taken that there is no hemlock among it, for though they will eat this greedily among other things, when offered to them, yet it is fudden poifon to them.
Rabbits are fubjecT: to two principal infirmities. Firft, the rot, which is caufed by the giving them too large a quan- tity of greens, or from the giving them freih gathered with the dew or rain hanging in drops upon them. It is over moifture that always caufes this difeafe, the greens therefore are always to be given dry, and a fufficient quan- tity of hay, or other dry food, intermixed with them, to take up the abundant moifture of their juices. On this ac- count the very beft food that can be given them, is the fhorteft and fweeteft hay that can be got, of which one load will ferve two hundred couples a year ; and out of thi: ftock of two hundred, two hundred may be eat in the fa- mily, two hundred fold to the markets, and a fufficient number kept in cafe of accidents.
The other general difeafe of thefe creatures is a fort of madnefs : this may be known by their wallowing and tum- bling about with their heels upwards, and hopping in an odd manner into their boxes. This diftemper is fuppofed to be owing to the ranknefs of their feeding; and the ge- Suppl. Vol. II.
neral cure Is the keeping them low, and giving them the prickly herb, called tare-thijlk, to eati The general computation of males and females is, that one buck rabbit will ferve for nine does ; fome allow ten to one buck ; but thofe who go beyond this always fuffer for it in their breed.
The wild rabbits are to be taken either by fmall cur dogs, or by fpaniels bred up to the fport ; and the places of hunt- ing thofe who ftraggle from their burrows, 13 under clofe hedges, or bufhes, or among corn-fields and freih paftures. The owners ufe to courfe them with fmal! greyhounds, and though they are feldom kilPd this way, yet they are driven back to their burrows, and are prevented from being a prey to others. The common method is by nets, called purfe nets, and ferrets. The ferret is fent into the hole to force them out, and the purfe net being fpread over the hole, takes them as they come out. The ferrets mouths muft be muffled, and then the rabbit gets no harm. For the more certain taking of them, it may not be improper to pitch up a hay net or two, at a fmall diftance from the burrows that are intended to be hunted : thus very few of the number that are attempted will efcape. The method by the dog, called the lurcher and tumbler, is alfo a very good one. See Ferret and Lurcher.
Some who have not ferrets fmoak the rabbits out of their holes with burning brimftone and orpiment. This cer- tainly brings them out into the nets, but then it is a very troublefome and offenfive method, and is very detrimental to the place, as no rabbit will, of a long time, afterwards come near the burrows which have been fumed with thefe ftinking ingredients.
The tefticle of a rabbit is a very good object for examin- ing the ftrudTure of this part of generation in animals. The whole fubftance of the tefticle in this animal is made up of veffels, which lie in round folds in the manner of the fmaller inteftines, but then both ends of each roll meet at their infertion, which feems to be made into the dutlus nervofus; and every one of thefe little rolls is curioufly em- broidered with other veffels, which, from their red colour, appear to be arteries and veins. The feveral little, rolls lie in ranges, difpofed with an uniformity which is very agree- able to the eye. Every one of thefe rolls is not a fingle and entire tube, but each confifts of feveral tubes, befide the veins and arteries which embroider it. This is beft di- ftinguifhed by the cutting one of the rolls tranfverfely, and then examining the cut end with a glafs, which will then appear to be made up of the cut and open ends of four, five, or more parallel tubes, which together form the roll, or fingle tube, as it appears to the eye, being all wrapped up in one common and very thin membrane. Thefe are fo tender that they cannot be explicated and viewed diftincT, as De Graeff tells us thofe of the tefticles of a rat, and of fome other animals, may. Thefe however, as well as the others, are only made up of a congeries of veffels, and the liquors, which are their contents, without any intermediate fubftance, or any thing of that paren- chyma, which many authors have talked of. The tefticles of a bull have the greateft appearance of a flefhy texture of thofe of any known animal, yet even thefe afford no particle of parenchyma, or flefh, when examined by glaffes in any fort of preparation, whether boiled, raw, foaked in fpirits, or in whatever other ftate. The tefticles of vari- ous animals are very varioufly compofed, but all in this general manner of veffels varioufly rolled and folded toge- ther; and even the human tefticles are of the fame fort, being compofed folely of rolls of veffels, without any in- termediate fubftance, be it called by whatever name, but only confifting of veffels and their liquors. Philof. Tranf. N°52.
RABCHORCADO, in zoology, the name of an American bird, defcribed by Nieremberg with many fabulous circum- ftances. All that feems certainly known is, that its tail is very remarkably forked. Ray's Ornithol. p. 305.
RABEBOIA, a name given by fome to the roots of the flam- mula major.
RABICH, a name given by Leo Africanus to a tree or fhrub growing very plentifully in many parts of Africa, the fruit of which is much efteemed by the natives. He fays that the tree rabicb is prickly, and that the fruit is round and like a cherry, but fmaller, and of the tafte of the jujube. Leo Africanus, lib. 3.
RABIEL, a name given by fome authors to dragons blood. See Sanguis dratonis.
A a a RABIRA.
