To the extent possible under law, the Text Creation Partnership has waived all copyright and related or neighboring rights to this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above, according to the terms of the CC0 1.0 Public Domain Dedication (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/). This waiver does not extend to any page images or other supplementary files associated with this work, which may be protected by copyright or other license restrictions. Please go to http://www.textcreationpartnership.org/ for more information.
ANd yet it is not inough to haue made and finished the things that are to bee done round about the Warren, as to haue fenced it, with whatsoeuer is ne∣cessarie for the preseruing and nourishing of conies; but you must also store and plant it: for no more than arable ground beareth fruit, except there be seed cast into in: nor the vine any grapes, except it bee diligently planted
and dressed: so neither thinke you that your Warren, be it neuer so nea••ly and neces∣sarily appointed and trimmed vp, can breed and feed conies, except you first put them there. Wherefore for your storing of your Warren, it is requisite that you cast vp a clapper, wherein you may put your males and females to kindle euery mo∣neth: for to buy so many as should be needfull would be too costly and chargeable for the farmer or housholder. Seeing also that it commeth to passe oftentimes, that after hee hath sold many vnto the vitailers, or for that the foxes haue eaten vp some great number, the Warren remaineth quite spoiled, and destitute of conies, in so much as that he must be compelled to store it againe. It is better therefore, in respect of the greater commoditie and lesse charges, to make a clapper in some corner of your court, kitching, or garden, which may be foure square, narrow, and fenced in with bords, or plaistered walls: indeed it were better to be prouided in the Warren, for so the young ones might more commodiously out of the clapper passe into the Warren at some one side of the clapper, which should bee crosse wrought with lat∣tise worke, and should haue the holes thereof left so wide, as that the young ones might passe out and in vnto their dams.
Whether therefore the clapper be prouided in the Warren, or elsewhere, you must build certaine small lodgings paued with boords, and these must haue holes in them like to those which the conies make themselues in the earth, and euery one seuerall from another, for the conies to betake themselues into: and it will be enough for to allow in such places one male to eight or ten females; and yet therewithall to keepe the bucke close shut vp in his lodging, for feare he should hurt and wrong the young ones, for the male conie (contrarie to the nature of all other manner of buckes) de∣uoureth the young ones. It is very true, that so soone as it is espied, that the Doe hath kindled, she must incontinently be put into some other hole with the male, that so he may Bucke her: for this is a most certain thing, that so soone as the Doe is emptie and deliuered of her young ones, euen so soone she is full againe of young, in such sort, as that she bringeth forth young euery moneth in the yeare: yea, and being great with young, she letteth not to take the Bucke, and to continue a second burden, which she bringeth forth afterward in due time. So as that this fruitfulnesse in conies hath become so admirable vnto many, as that some haue vpon too slender grounds thought and beleeued that the Bucke shoold conceiue aud become great with young aswell as the Doe, which is very false and altogether contrarie to all naturall course in the action of generation, seeing that by natures course, it is ordained that the fe∣male only amongst beasts should conceiue and ing••nder, and not the male.
After that the young ones are growne somewhat great, and become able to leaue their dams, you shall carrie them into the Warren for to store it therewith, and so let them grow wild: otherwise if you keepe them shut vp, and fast inclosed in the clap∣per with their dams, they will become tame, and alwaies continue as it were slum∣bring and heauie, like vnto those which are continually shut vp in clappers made for the purpose; and so will haue a grosser and more vnpleasant flesh.
And yet notwithstanding, you must beware not to put abroad into your Warren, the old clapper conies, either males or females: for seeing they haue not had their free swing to run abroad as those of the Warren, and haue not learned to saue them∣selues from dangers and violences offred them by foxes and other such wild beasts, they would bee by and by deuoured; so that thereupon it seemes better to containe and continue them still in their accustomed clapper.
Conies in the clapper are to be sed with col••worts, lettuses, groundsell, clarie, suc∣corie, sowthistle, ••arragon, thistles, cich pease, oats, barely and bran mingled together, and other such like things, as we haue spoken of heretofore. In some countries they feed them with mans bloud, such as is to be come by when sicke persons are let bloud: but such manner of feeding of them is starke naught, and maketh their flesh vnsauo∣rie in eating, and very preiudiciall vnto health.
And surely to speake the truth there is no food that a man can bind a conie to 〈◊〉〈◊〉 which is wholesome for them, because they are beasts which aboue all other desire
freedome of feeding, and to make choice of their owne meat. Whence it comes, that the tame conie is nothing so pleasant to eat as the wild, but is of a much ranker taste, and most easie to be discerned.