3lAR. 5. 1853.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



241 



and so all passed off very pleasantly." — Nichols's Pro- 

 gresses of James I., vol. iii. pp. 495. 496. 



W. M. R. E. 



[Mr. Arthur Wilson has written to us that this 

 word is Swedish, and to be found in Widegren's Swedish 

 and English Dictionary. We may add that it is also 

 in Delens, but we do not believe it to be of Swedish 

 origin. We believe it will eventually be traced to a 

 French source, — Ed.] 



" CONINGER" OB " CONINGBT." 



(Vol. vii., p. 182.) 



The Latin word for a rabbit is cuniculus, as is 

 shown in the following couplet of Martial : 



" Gaudet in efFossis habitare cuniculus antris : 



Monstravit tacitas hostibus ille vias." — xiii. 60. 



The rabbit appears to have been originally pe- 

 culiar to Spain, Southern France, and the adjoin- 

 ing islands. Strabo (iii. 2. § 6.) says that it is 

 found nearly over the whole of Spain, and in the 

 Balearic islands ; and that it reaches as far as Mas- 

 silia. Polybius (xii. 3.) likewise states it to be a 

 native of Corsica. It was unknown to the Greeks, 

 and is not mentioned by Aristotle in his works on 

 natural history (see Camus, Notes sur THistoire 

 des Animaux d'Aristote, p. 278.) ; nor does it ever 

 occur in the ^sopian fables, although the hare is 

 frequently introduced. Hence it had no native 

 Greek name ; and Polybius borrows the Latin 

 word, calling it kvvikAos (compare Athen., ix. 

 p. 400.). Strabo uses the periphrasis of "burrow- 

 ing hares," jfdpvxoi \ayidf7s. ^lian, again, employs 

 the Latin name, which he considers to be of Ibe- 

 rian origin (De Nat. Anim., xiii. 15.). If this be 

 true, the sense of subterranean passage, which 

 cuniculus also bears, is secondary, and not primary 

 (compare Plin. Nat Hist., viii. 81.). 



The language of Varro de Re Rust. (iii. 12.) 

 likewise shows that the rabbit was in his time 

 peculiar to Spain, and had not been introduced 

 into Italy. The meaning of the Hebrew word 

 Saphan, which is translated cony in the authorised 

 version of the Old Testament (Lev. xi. 5. ; Deut. 

 xiv. 7.; Ps. civ. 18.; Prov. xxx. 26.), has been 

 fully investigated by biblical critics and natural- 

 ists. (See Bochart's Hierozoicon, vol. ii, pp. 409 — 

 429., ed. Rosenmiiller ; Winer, Bihl. Real-Wor- 

 terhu£h, in Springhase ; Penny Cyclopcedia, in 

 Hyrax.) It is certainly not the rabbit, which is 

 not a native of Syria and Palestine : but whether 

 this ruminant quadruped, which lives in the rocks, 

 is the jerboa, or a species of hyrax, or some other 

 small edible animal of a like description, Is difficult 

 to determine. 



From the manner In which Strabo speaks of 

 Spain and the Balearic islands being infested by 

 large numbers of rabbits. It would appear (as Le- 

 grand d'Aussy remarks, Vie privee des Franqais^ 



torn. ii. p. 24.) that the ancients did not eat its 

 flesh. The rabbit is now so abundant in parts of 

 the south of France, that, according to the same 

 author, a sportsman in the islands near Aries who 

 did not kill a hundred, would be dissatisfied with, 

 his day's sport. A Provencal gentleman, who in 

 1551 went out to kill rabbits with some of his 

 vassals, and three dogs, brought home In the even- 

 ing not less than six hundred. 



From the Latin cuniculus have been formed^ 

 according to the proper analogy, the Italian coni- 

 glio, the Spanish conejo, and the French conil^ 

 sometimes modified Into conin (see Diez, Roman. 

 Gramm., vol. ii. p. 264.). From the old French. 

 conin was borrowed the English coning or conig, 

 afterwards shortened Into cony : and from this 

 word have been formed conigar and coningry or 

 conigry, for rabbit-warren (see Halliwell's Diet.,, 

 In Conig). Conillus, for a rabbit-warren, occurs 

 in Ducange ; conejdr is the Spanish term. 



The Germans, like the English, had no native 

 name for the rabbit ; an animal not Indigenous In 

 their country. Hence they borrowed the French 

 name conin, which they altered into hunin ; and 

 have since formed the diminutive kaninchen. In 

 Suablan, the form used Is kuniglein. See Adelung 

 In V. The Dutch word is konj/n. 



The rabbit was probably Introduced Into Eng- 

 land from France. Query : When did that intro- 

 duction take place ? Also, when did the later 

 term " rabbit " supersede the old name cony ? and 

 what is the etymology of rabbit ? The French. 

 lapin, which has supplanted the old word conin, is 

 said to be formed from lepinu^s, an adjective of 

 lepus. L. 



Your solution of the etymology of this word, as 

 coming from Cowe^-borough, is no doubt correct : 

 but I apprehend the last syllable has a more spe- 

 cific derivation. On the opposite sides of the 

 Lough of Belfast, there are two localities in which 

 this old English word is preserved. This district 

 was, as you are aware, colonised by English set- 

 tlers about 1590 a.d., when large grants were 

 made to Sir Arthur Chichester, ancestor of the 

 present Marquis of Donegal. At Carrickfergus, 

 on the north side of the bay, there is a spot called 

 the Connyherry, which is a corruption of " Coney- 

 borough ;" but on the opposite side, at Holy ward, 

 there is a populous rabbit-warren, known as the 

 " Kinnegar ;" which I take to be the conynger or 

 coningeria about which your correspondent asks. 

 J. Emerson Tennent. 



NAMES AND NUMBERS OF BRITISH REGIMENTS. 



(Vol. vil., p. 155.) 



Z.'s third application relative to the names and 

 numbers of regiments has roused me into activity. 



