Читать книгу Harper's Outdoor Book for Boys - Joseph H. Adams - Страница 21

Among animal pets rabbits seem to be general favorites all over the country, perhaps because they are such beautiful and harmless little creatures and so prettily marked. They are worthy of a comfortable home, and the boy who is fortunate enough to have some good rabbits should take pleasure in building a substantial hutch in which they can live and thrive.

In Fig. 20 a double-floored rabbit-hutch is shown, and if it is made large enough quite a family of rabbits can live in it, the larger ones down-stairs and the smaller ones upstairs. An inclined plane will make it possible for the friends and relatives to visit each other.

This hutch should be from four to five feet long, twenty-four inches wide, and twenty-four inches high. The second floor is arranged so that it will be midway between the top and bottom, and at the rear an opening five inches wide and ten inches long will receive an inclined board, across which short sticks have been nailed to prevent the rabbits slipping when going up or coming down the stairs.

At one end a compartment is made eighteen inches wide, and provided with a door six inches wide hung on hinges and fastened with a hasp and lock. Openings five inches wide and six inches high are cut in the side of this compartment, so that the rabbits may enter it from either floor. A drop front, on hinges, will permit the hutch to be partially closed in very severe weather, but when it is pleasant the front should be raised and propped up with a stick, in the ends of which hooks are arranged that will fit into screw-eyes driven into the lid and along the side of the compartment, as shown in the illustration.

In the end of the hutch, opposite the bottom of the stairway, a feeding-doorway six inches square should be cut with a compass saw, and a door hung on hinges. This hutch should be supported on stout sticks or posts embedded in the ground for at least two feet, and it should be thirty to forty inches above the ground. Across the open runs, galvanized wire cloth, with half to three-quarter inch meshes, is to be nailed fast with staples. With a few coats of paint on the outside, this hutch will present a very good appearance.

The rabbit-house (Fig. 21) is a large, one-story structure, in which a family of rabbits can live very comfortably. It is thirty-six inches long, twenty-four inches wide, eighteen inches high at the back and twenty-two at the front. At one side a compartment is made twelve inches wide, and at the outer side a door seven by nine inches is hung and fastened with a lock. This house is supported on four posts, two or three feet above the ground, and when painted it should look very homelike to a rabbit’s eyes.

A house of this same description, but larger, may be made for a monkey, a fox, an opossum, a raccoon, or even for bear cubs. For the latter, bars will have to be used instead of the wire cloth, for the bears would soon tear away the lighter material.