14 THE RABBIT 



shire, weighed 5 lb. 2 oz. ; and another, caught by a 

 dog at East Molesey, just below Tagg's Island, was 

 stated to have weighed 5 lb. 10 oz. when paimched} 

 A correspondent at Lichfield wrote word, in February, 

 1890, that he had obtained one which weighed 6 lb. 

 all but 2 oz., and was of opinion that it was a pure- 

 bred wild rabbit. 



When so-called wild rabbits of such extraordinary 

 size are reported, there is naturally some reason to 

 suspect that they must be the result of a cross with 

 tame rabbits, that have been turned down, if not on 

 the same ground, at all events on adjoining land ; 

 and in some cases this has been proved to be so. 

 For example, in The Field of February 14, 1891, 

 Mr. G. M. Chamberlain, of Stratton Strawless, near 

 Norwich, wrote to report that he had shot a rabbit in 

 one of the coverts there, which weighed no less than 

 6^ lb. ; but the following week a former agent on 

 the estate announced that he well remembered several 

 half-bred animals being killed there in 1881, and that 

 on inquiry he had discovered that tame ones had 

 been turned down to increase the size, and that 

 some killed that year were marked with white. 



We regard it as a mistake to turn down tame 

 rabbits on a sporting estate, for although the result no 



» The Field, January 7, 1888. 



