THE RABBIT 



it may be safely inferred that in early times the rabbit 

 was not indigenous either in Greece or Italy, nor was 

 it known eastward of these countries. The ancient 

 Jews were unacquainted with it, and there is no 

 mention of it in the Bible ; for it is now generally 

 acknowledged that the Hebrew word shdphaii, which, 

 in the Authorised Version, is rendered ' coney of the 

 rock,' is not our familiar rodent, but the Syrian Hyrax 

 {Hyrax syriaciis). The ancient classic authors, then, 

 derived their knowledge of it through the early ex- 

 plorers of Western Europe. Strabo, writing about the 

 year 50 B.C., expressly mentions the rabbit as being 

 abundant in Spain. He writes : ' Of destructive 

 animals there are scarcely any with the exception of 

 certain little hares which burrow in the ground (ttAi^i/ 

 Ttov yewpv;>(wv XaytSeW) and destroy both seeds and 

 plants by gnawing at the roots. They are met with 

 throughout almost the whole of Spain, extending to 

 Marseilles, and infesting the islands also. It is said 

 that formerly the inhabitants of the islands Majorca 

 and Minorca sent a deputation to the Romans soliciting 

 that a new land might be given them, as they were 

 quite driven out of their country by those animals, 

 being no longer able to stand against their vast multi- 

 tudes.' Further on he observes that to clieck the 

 increase of these ' little hares,' many ways of hunting 



