368 MONOGRAPHS OF NORTH AMERICAN RODENTIA. 
World—has to such an extent reverted to a feral condition in a few localities 
as to deserve a passing notice in the present connection. Mr. B. R. Gilpin 
states* that the Rabbit exists in a wild state on ‘‘Sable Island, a desert island 
about ninety miles southeast of Nova Scotia.” Here he says they have, in 
the space of fifty years, assumed “one common silver-gray tint, with white 
collars.” : 
Count L. F. de Pourtales informs me that some years since he was told 
by Colonel Patterson, an old resident of Florida, of the existence of some 
Rabbits which lived in burrows on Rabbit Key near Key West, which in all 
probability were the Z. cuniculus. Mr. P. H. Gosse states, on the authority 
of Mr. Richard Hill, that the Common Rabbit had reverted to a feral con- 
dition in certain parts of the island of Jamaicat Darwin says later, also 
on the authority of Mr. Hill, that it never flourished there, owing to the un- 
favorable character of the climate, and that, owing toa great fire which occur- 
red in the woods, they became extinct.t 
Darwin also states that the Rabbit, long since introduced into the Falk- 
land Islands, has there also reverted to a feral condition. He adds, however, 
that they have never spread there extensively, although abundant over large 
parts of the East Falkland Island. Like the Horses, they are confined 
within certain limits, and had not, at the time of his visit, crossed the 
central chain of hills, nor would they have extended even so far as its base, 
had not, according to the Gauchos, small colonies been carried there. Most 
of them, he says, are of the common gray color, but a few are “ hare-colored”, 
and many are black, often with symmetrical white marks on their faces. 
As already noted, M. R. P. Lesson described the black variety as a distinet 
species, under the name Lepus magellanicus. M. Lesson was mistaken, how- 
ever, in supposing it to also occur on the adjoining mainland. Darwin also 
states that within recent times the sealers have stocked some of the small 
outlying islets of the Falkland group with Rabbits.§ 
Ina state of domestication, the Rabbit is found throughout a considerable 
part of both Americas, multiplying freely under very diverse climatic con- 
ditions, existing as far north as Nova Scotia and the Canadas and also within 
the tropics. 
*Trans. Nova Scotia Institute Nat. Sci., vol. iii, p. 126, (1872.) 
t Gosse’s Sojourn in Jamaica, 1841, p. 441. 
{ Animals and Plants under Domestication, vol. i, p. 141. 
§ Respecting the occurrence of the Rabbit on the Falkland Islands, see Darwin’s Journal of Re- 
searches, p. 193; Zodlogy of the Voyage of the Beagle, Mammalia, p- 92; Animals and Plants under 
Domestication, vol. i, p. 141. 
