Ohap. IV. FERAL RABBITS. 117 



Islands ; they are abundant in certain parts, but do not 

 * spread extensively. Most of them are of the common grey 

 colour ; a few, as I am informed by Admiral Sulivan, are 

 hare-coloured, and many are black, often with nearly symme- 

 trical white marks on their faces. Hence, M. Lesson described 

 the black variety as a distinct species, under the name of 

 Lepus magellanicus, but this, as I have elsewhere shown, is an 

 error. 22 Within recent times the sealers have stocked some 

 of the small outlying islets in the Falkland group with 

 rabbits ; and on Pebble Islet, as I hear from Admiral Sulivan, 

 a large proportion are hare-coloured, whereas on Rabbit Islet 

 a large proportion are of a bluish colour, which is not else- 

 where seen. How the rabbits were coloured which were 

 turned out of these islets is not known. 



The rabbits which have become feral on the island of Porto 

 Santo, near Madeira, deserve a fuller account. In 1418 or 

 1419, J. Gonzales Zarco 23 happened to have a female rabbit 

 on board which had produced young during the voyage, and 

 he turned them all out on the island. These animals soon 

 increased so rapidly, that they became a nuisance, and actu- 

 ally caused the abandonment of the settlement. Thirty- 

 seven years subsequently, Cada Mosto describes them as 

 innumerable ; nor is this suprising, as the island was not 

 inhabited by any beast of prey or by any terrestrial mammal. 

 We do not know the character of the mother-rabbit ; but it 

 was probably the common domesticated kind. The Spanish 

 peninsula, whence Zarco sailed, is known to have abounded 

 with the common wild species at the most remote historical 

 period ; and as these rabbits were taken on board for food, it 

 is improbable that they should have been of any peculiar 

 breed. That the breed was well domesticated is shown by 

 the doe having littered during the voyage. Mr. Wollaston, 

 at my request, brought home two of these feral rabbits in 

 spirits of wine ; and, subsequently, Mr. W. Haywood sent to 



22 Darwin's ' Journal of Researches,' Lisbon in 1717, entitled ' Historia 

 p. 193 ; and ' Zoology of the Voyage Insulana,' written by a Jesuit, the 

 of the Beagle: Mammalia,' p. 92. rabbits were turned out "n 1420. Some 



23 Kerr's ' Collection of Voyages,' \uthors believe that the island was 

 vol. ii. p. 177 : p. 205 for Ca^la Mosto. discovered in 1413. 



According to a work published in 



