NOTES ON THE OCCURRENCE OF WARTS ON 

 COTTONTAIL RABBITS 



J. E. GUTHRIE 



About twelve years ago my attention was drawn to some inter- 

 esting epithelial growths on the head of a cottontail rabbit which 

 was sent to the college by Mr. J. Schuyler Long, who wrote from 

 the Iowa School for the Deaf at Council Bluffs. The head and ac- 

 companying letter were referred to Professor H. E. Summers, then 

 head of the Department of Zoology at Iowa State College. The let- 

 ter reads : "I am sending you a rabbit's head. ... It has several 

 curious growths which resemble horns. I have killed a great many 

 rabbits but never saw anything like it before. I should be pleased 

 to hear . . . as to the explanation of this peculiar formation. 

 The rabbit from which the head was taken was caught in a trap by 

 one of our boys. In all other respects it looked like an ordinary rab- 

 bit and exhibited no other peculiarities, except that on two places 

 on the body were growths similar in color and texture to these 

 horns, but not pointed. They were about an inch square or a little 

 less, and were raised about 3-4 to 1-2 inch out of the skin." 



The accompanying figures are photographs of this rabbit head. 

 It has at least ten large horns, pointed rather acutely, conical in 

 shape and reaching as much as an inch in length. The under lip bore 

 some smaller, softer, branching ones as seen in the view from under- 

 neath. ^^'W^f'4'^W^\^ 



No dissection or other critical examination of the head was made 

 at the time, the specimen being merely preserved for the museum. 

 Apparently it represented a rare condition for the locality. 



After a lapse of eleven years the subject was again brought up 

 by a letter from Mr. J. W. Runnels of Stone Park, Sioux City. In 

 January of 1918 Mr. Runnels sent in a wart similar to those borne 

 by the Council Bluffs rabbit head, accompanied by the following 

 note: "The enclosed was firmly attached to the skin of a rabbit just 

 back of the left ear. Previous to this we have found several small 

 ones on rabbits, which hunters call warts. Kindly inform me what 

 they are and if they affect the flesh for food, also if they would 

 eventually kill the animal." 



