60 Zoological Society. 



May 10, 1831. W. Yarrell, Esq. in the Chair. 



A letter, addressed by Richard Thursfield, Esq. to Dr. Roots, 

 was read, in illustration of the history of a hybrid between the Hare 

 and the Rabbit, which was lately living at the Society's Farm. A 

 gentleman who was rearing a pair of tame rabbits, placed with them, 

 when they were about two months old, a young buck hare appa- 

 rently about the same age, which became in a short time as domes- 

 ticated as its companions. When the doe rabbit was old enough, 

 she had, by the buck rabbit and the hare, a litter, consisting of three 

 young ones, which resembled in all respects the mother and buck 

 rabbit, and of three mules. Two of these mules shortly died : the 

 third, a female, was reared with rabbits of her own age, and when 

 si.K months old produced one young one : she was afterwards bred 

 from eight times, by tame rabbits and by a wild one, but no oppor- 

 tunity occurred of placing a buck hare in confinement with her. 

 Her progeny by a white tame rabbit, with which she bred twice, 

 consisted of two young ones, which were perfectly gray, and of 

 two which were spotted : the latter are still alive, and breed regu- 

 larly, producing from five to eight at a time. The average weight 

 of the progeny of the mule female was about five pounds ; one, 

 however, weighed six pounds and a half. She died shortly after 

 coming into the Society's possession. 



Mr. Owen, having examined the body of this hybrid animal after 

 its deatlj, reported that its size and colour were those of the Hare, 

 but that its hinder legs were shorter than in that species, and agreed 

 rather with those of the Rabbit. The length of its small intestines 

 corresponded with that of the hare; its ccecum was seven inches 

 shorter ; while its large intestines measured one foot more than 

 those of the hare. 



Mr. Bennett called the attention of the Committee to the speci- 

 men of the Sociable Vulture ( Vultur auricularis, Daud.), which has 

 been an inhabitant of the Society's Gardens for nearlj' two years. 

 His object in adverting to this bird was to correct an erroneous im- 

 pression which might be produced on the minds of those who had 

 never seen an individual of the species, by the statement made by 

 M. Ruppel, in a late Monograph of the genus to which it belongs, 

 that considerable doubts as to the existence of such a species might 

 reasonably be entertained. M. Uuppel's doubts appear to have been 

 excited by the fact which he reports, that the stuffed skin in the 

 collection of the Due de Rivoli at Paris, which has been regarded 

 as that of the Vult. auricularis, is evidently factitious; the folds of 

 the skin on the head and neck having been produced in that speci- 

 men by artificial means. These doubts must, however, be at once 

 dissipated by the existence of a living specimen brought from the 

 Cape of Good Hope, according in every particular with Le Var- 

 iant's description of the Oricou, and having the remarkable folds of 

 skin which pass up the sides of the neck and round the ears developed 

 even to a greater extent than is represented in his figure. A specimen 

 of (he Pondichery Vulture ( Vullur Ponticerianus, Daud.), the only 



other 



