40 



The Rabbit, like the ferret, must in the domestic state be 

 kept closely confined, it does not possess all the qualities of 

 a true domestic animal, it is attached neither to persons nor 

 place. 



The rabbit is often kept as a pet, and forms a transition 

 to the three domestic animals which I have termed pets. 



The Guinea Pig belongs to the Cavies, a group restricted 

 entirely to the Southern parts of America, there are six 

 genera and about thirty species known. 



The small size of this animal, varied colours, perfect 

 tameness, great fertility, and the ease with which it can be 

 kept confined, placing it on a shelf being sufficient, has no 

 doubt tended to make it a pet popular with the young. 



Like so many domestic animals the origin of the guinea 

 pig is very uncertain, the name is corrupted from Guiana 

 Pig, and it has been supposed to have been derived from the 

 Cavia aperea, a view which the late Mr. Darwin did not 

 entertain, the latter being a marsh frequenting animal ; the 

 guinea pig, on the other hand, must always be kept in a dry 

 place. 



I am inclined to think that this useless little mammal 

 was domestic among the natives. of South America, before 

 the discovery of that continent, and brought to Europe 

 already tame. 



With regard to the other two pets, the variously coloured 

 rats and mice, I have found them quite as tame as guinea 

 pigs, and they could generally be handled with impunity. 

 The tameness of the former leads me to think that they have 

 descended from the Old English Rat, Mus rattus and not from 

 the fiercer Mus dectimanus. 



This concludes the enumeration of all the species of 

 mammalia which I consider truly domestic, they all thrive 

 in captivity, under circumstances utterly unlike those of 

 their wild ancestors, a wild boar of the woods and its 

 . descendant living healthily in a pigstye, present a contrast 

 of environment as great as that adverted to in the case of 

 the rabbit, yet both have had their fertility increased by 



