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Not having time then for the examination of the wart, and wish- 

 ing more information on the cause, nature and effects, I sent the 

 wart on to the Department of Animal Industry of the U. S. Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture at Washington with a request for information. 

 This was replied to by Dr. John S. Buckley, Acting Chief of the 

 Pathological Division as follows : 



"Replying to your letter of January 24, relative to a specimen of 

 tissue taken from the head of a cottontail rabbit and forwarded to 

 this office for examination, you are advised that histologic examina- 

 tion of stained sections of this material revealed the presence of a 

 dense mass of hornified epithelium. Distributed at intervals through 

 this tissue there were numerous dark pigment cells similar to those 

 present in the skin of animals. These corneous developments are 

 congenital malformations of dermal origin usually appearing as 

 "horns" in the skin just behind the ears. In wild rabbits such 

 growths are not infrequently encountered and are often referred to 

 as "horns." Aside from some local irritation to the surrounding tis- 

 sues, they possess little pathogenic significance." 



Nearly a year later, on December 3, 1918, came a letter from Rev. 

 C. Lilie of Persia, Iowa. Mr. Lilie says : "Should like to have some 

 information regarding "warts" on cotton-tail rabbits. These "warts" 

 appear on practically all older rabbits. They are but loosely con- 

 nected with the outer skin, not showing at all below the skin. Some 

 people claim that they indicate a disease, making the rabbit affected 

 unfit for human consumption. Others say that they are produced 

 merely by local irritation from sand burs, etc." Mr. Lilie's letter 

 indicates what seems to be a pretty thorough infestation of the cot- 

 ton-tails in the southeastern part of Harrison county. 



Since that time I have made scores of inquiries among our stu- 

 dents, but have found very few who had ever seen or heard of the 

 occurrence of these growths. Two men of our faculty who have 

 killed more rabbits around Ames than any others I know of, and 

 have hunted elsewhere in the state as well, have told me that they 

 have never seen anything of the kind. I talked with one student 

 from one of the southeastern counties of South Dakota, and learned 

 that in a day's hunting they usually find a few warted ones, and that 

 they throw these rabbits away. He estimated the affected ones at 

 about ten per cent of the cotton-tails. Another student reported hav- 

 ing seen some warts around the ear bases of rabbits in Faribault 

 county, in southern Minnesota. 



