Rabbits may frequently be kept in the aviary, though, unless the extent of ground be considerable, they are better in an area by themselves. There are two kinds of rabbits reared for the market; one is the common wild rabbit, which is kept in warrens, and the stock taken by nets or traps, as it is wanted to be used or sent to market; and the other, the animal in a highly artificial state, kept in hutches or small boxes, and fattened like fowls for killing: the flesh of rabbits of the latter kind cannot be considered as wholesome; and, leaving the treatment of them to those who advocate cramming fowls and stall-feeding oxen, we shall close what we have to stay on this subject, by recommending the keeping of rabbits, of what are called the wild or common kind, in a house with a small yard attached, to serve as a warren or place of exercise. The house may form one of the same range as the poultry-houses; and the warren may either be close to the rab-bit-house, or at any convenient distance from it, communicating with it by a covered way.

The artificial warren may be 50 or 60 feet square: if the subsoil be dry, the surface or floor of the warren may be sunk 2 or 3 ft., and surrounded by a wall rising 3 or 4 feet above the natural surface of the ground; but, if the subsoil be moist, then the warren may be made in the form of a raised ridge, and surrounded by a dwarf wall, surmounted by an open fence. The use of the warren is for the rabbits to take exercise in by burrowing; and hence, when the soil is not sufficiently free for this purpose, it-ought to be made so by deep trenching, and by the addition of sand. In order to admit a free circulation of air to the warren, and also to admit of seeing it at pleasure, it should never be surrounded by a high close fence; hut a sunk wall will always be necessary, to prevent the rabbits from burrowing into the adjacent grounds. The rabbits should never be fed in the warren, but always in the rabbit-house; and this should be done at stated times, in order that the rabbits may acquire the habit of appearing there regularly. 452. The apiary is another source of interest to all who live in the country, and fortunately it may be indulged in by the humblest labourer, no less than by the wealthiest citizen, provided there are fields and gardens in the neighbourhood containing flowers.

A beehive, when there is no room for it anywhere else, may, like a pigeon-house, or even a garden of pots, be placed on the roof of the house. Much has been, and continues to be, written on the subject of bees; and the kinds of hives are proportionately numerous. Instead of pointing out what we consider to be the merits and defects of the principal of these, we shall limit ourselves to observing that, where little or no attention can be paid to the bees, except perhaps at the swarming season, the common hive of the country, whatever that may be. - for example the straw hive in Britain and on the Continent generally, the trunk or pipe hive in Poland, and the cork hive in Spain and the Canaries, will, in our opinion, be found the best, because everybody understands it; but that, where there is leisure, and a disposition to attend to bee culture, Nutt's hives are by far the best that have been yet invented. It has been a great object with the inventors of hives to devise means for taking the honey without killing the bees; and Mr. Nutt not only effects this, but what is of incomparably more importance, he prevents young bees from being generated, except when they are wanted, and consequently prevents swarming with all its attendant troubles.

The principle upon which all Mr. Nutt's improvements are founded, is that of regulating the temperature of the hives, so that the bees may breed in one temperature, and make their honey in another. Under a certain degree of heat, the queen bee will not lay eggs, nor will these eggs be hatched; while the process of collecting and storing up honey goes on without much reference to temperature, provided the sun shines. Nutt'shive requires to be placed under some description of cover or bee-house. This should, in general, be so contrived as to leave free access to the hive behind, and hence it can never be placed- against a wall or against a house. It may be in a detached building, consisting of a rustic structure covered with bark; or it may be placed under a roof open on every side, the props being rustic pillars, and the roof being covered with thatch, reeds, woodman's chips, spray, bark, heath, or similar materials. Fig. 217. shows a handsome bee-canopy of this kind, covering one of Nutt's hives, which stands in a recess in the pleasure-ground at Chipstead Place, in Kent At Bayswater, our Nutt's hive is placed in the front of a veranda (see fig. 218.), in a line with its pillars, and is consequently protected from perpendicular rain; but as the excessive beat of summer is equally injurious with rain, it is protected from that, and from the sudden influence of either heat or cold in winter, by a casing of broom and heath.

The back of the hive, where the doors are, on opening which the bees may be seen at work, is most conveniently examined from the veranda.