Chap. IV. DIFFERENCES IN THEIR SKELETONS. 



127 



B 



a 



Fig. 13. — Third Cervical Vertebrae, of natural size, 

 of — A. Wild Rabbit; B. Hare-culoured, large, 

 Lop-eared Rabbit, a, a, inferior surface ; b, b, 

 anterior articular surfaces. 



surfaces are compared ; for the extremities of the antero-dorsal pro- 

 cesses in the wild rabbit are simply rounded, whilst in the lop-eared 

 they are trifid, with a deep 

 central pit. The canal 

 for the spinal marrow in 

 the lop-eared (b b) is more 

 elongated in a transverse 

 direction than in the wild 

 rabbit; and the passages 

 for the arteries are of a 

 slightly different shape. 

 These several differences 

 in this vertebra seem to 

 me well deserving atten- 

 tion. 



First dorsal vertebra. — 

 Its neural spine varies in 

 length in the wild rabbit ; 

 being sometimes very 

 short, but generally more 

 than half as long as that 

 of the second dorsal; but I have seen it in two large lop-eared 

 rabbits three-fourths of the length of that of the second dorsal 

 vertebra. 



Ninth and tenth dorsal vertebras. — In the wild rabbit the neural 

 spine of the ninth vertebra is just perceptibly thicker than that of 

 the eighth ; and the neural spine of the tenth is plainly thicker and 

 shorter than those of all the anterior vertebrae. In the large lop- 

 eared rabbits the neural spines of the tenth, ninth, and eigh th vertebrae, 

 and even in a slight degree that of the seventh, are very much 

 thicker, and of somewhat different shape, in comparison with those 

 of the wild rabbit. So that this part of the vertebral column differs 

 considerably in appearance from the same part in the wild rabbit, 

 and closely resembles in an interesting manner these same vertebrae 

 in some species of hares. In the Angora, Chinchilla, and Hima- 

 layan rabbits, the neural spines of the eighth and ninth vertebrae 

 are in a slight degree thicker than in the wild. On the other hand, 

 in one of the feral Porto Santo rabbits, which in most of its cha- 

 racters deviates from the common wild rabbit, in a direction 

 exactly opposite to that assumed by the large lop-eared rabbits, the 

 neural spines of the ninth and tenth vertebras were not at all larger 

 than those of the several anterior vertebrae. In tins same Porto 

 Santo specimen there was no trace in the ninth vertebra of the 

 anterior lateral processes (see woodcut 14), which are plainly deve- 

 loped in all British wild rabbits, and still more plainly developed 

 in the large lop-eared rabbits. In a 'half-wild rabbit from Sandon 

 Park, 26 a haemal spine was moderately well developed on the under 



26 These rabbits have run wild for 

 a considerable time in Sandon Park. 



and in other places in Staffordshire 

 and Shropshire. They originated, as 



