THE POPULAR EDUCATOK. 



able, the white fur being probably warmer than the grey and 

 yellowish brown. 



Belonging to the family of hares, we have also the rabbit 

 jLepus cuniculus), which is so common an animal that there is 

 probably no one who is not familiar with it. A craze for 

 rabbit-keeping among lads is about as common a complaint as 

 the measles, and probably many a reader of this article will 

 remember the interest he used to take in the inmates of the 

 hutch when he paid his periodical visits to see after their 

 welfare, and the solicitude he felt for the cases of pot-belly, 

 snuffles, scurf, &c., that he may have had on his hands during 

 his rabbit-keeping experience. The knowledge he then gained 

 would make it difficult for us to tell him anything new about 

 the ways of these pets, and we shall therefore confine ourselves 

 to an account of some facts which he may not know. 



The rabbit is not so big as the hare, and its hinder legs are 

 shorter. It is supposed to have been introduced from Spain into 

 the various countries of 

 Europe in which it is 

 now found. In the wild 

 state, rabbits have a 

 great uniformity of 

 colour ; in the domesti- 

 cated state, the greatest 

 diversity. The colour 

 of the fur of the wild 

 rabbit is brown, with 

 its tail black above and 

 white beneath ; but 

 domesticated rabbits 

 are white, black, fawn, 

 yellow, grey, or slate 

 colour, &c. With the 

 uniform colour of the 

 wild rabbit there is 

 associated nearly un- 

 conquerable wildness ; 

 with the varied colour 

 of the domesticated 

 rabbit, a state of ex- 

 treme tameness. On 

 this matter of tame- 

 ness of the domesti- 

 cated animal, Darwin 

 remarks : " Hardly any 

 animal is more difficult 

 to tame than the young 

 of the wild rabbit ; 

 scarcely any animal is 

 tamer than the young 

 of the tame rabbit. 



We must 



attribute at least the 

 greater part of the 

 inherited change from 



xtreme wildness to extreme tameness to habit and long-con- 

 tinued confinement." 



The doe commences to breed when from six to eight months 

 old. It would perhaps be hard to find any back-boned animal 

 that is more prolific. Naturalists generally assert that it will 

 breed seven times in a year ; but a rabbit-fancier, with an eye 

 to producing a fine breed, will not allow a doe to have more 

 than four litters a year. Thre are generally about eight'young 

 ones in a litter. If we suppose, then, that the guiding hand of 

 the fancier is not over them, a pair of rabbits would have fifty- 

 six young ones in one year. These would pair in the following 

 year, and have a numerous progeny, so that there would soon 

 be quite a colony. A lively conception of their rapid multipli- 

 cation will be obtained if the reader make a rough calculation 

 of how many descendants a couple of rabbits would have in 

 four years, supposing they had seven litters a year, with eight 

 young ones in a litter in equal numbers of males and females. 

 Upon making the calculation, it will be found that the original 

 pair have, at the close of the fourth year, over a million descen- 

 dants, consisting of sons and daughters, grandchildren, great- 

 grandchildren, and great-great-grandchildren. A truly patri- 

 archal pair ! 



Babbits have lots of enemies the cat, dog, and man himself, 



THE ALPINE PIKA. 



&c. So numerous, indeed, are their enemies, that if they were 

 not so prolific they might soon become extinct. Of extinction, 

 however, there is not much fear, for if climate and surroundings 

 are suitable, their numbers steadily increase, notwithstanding 

 the ravages of their enemies. Goldsmith relates that in Spain 

 and some of the islands of the Mediterranean, where their 

 numbers were not sufficiently checked by man, they multiplied 

 to such an extent as to become a positive pest to the natives. 

 The aid of soldiers was demanded to destroy t em, for they 

 were becoming a plague, but an efficient check was found in 

 the introduction of the ferret. 



In our own times, indeed, a similar experience is being now 

 passed through. Babbits have been introduced into Australia 

 and New Zealand, and there is now a loud outcry against 

 them. 



These rodents are vegetarians in the strictest sense of the 

 word, living on nothing but vegetable products. Hares, for ex- 

 ample, live upon roots, 

 leaves, fruits, and corn, 

 quenching their thirst 

 with dew, and during 

 winter they will eat 

 the bark of trees. The 

 domestic rabbit is fed 

 on grain, meal, hay, 

 clover, vetches, com- 

 frey, dandelion, &c. 



There are several 

 varieties of rabbits. 

 The lop-eared breed is 

 highly esteemed by 

 fanciers. In this breed 

 the ears appear abnor- 

 mally long, measuring 

 across from tip to tip as 

 many as twenty inches. 

 In some other breeds 

 the ears are erect. Any 

 striking peculiarity in 

 any breed is made more 

 pronounced by a dis- 

 creet process of selec- 

 tion in breeding. 



The so-named calling 

 hares, or pikas (Lago- 

 myidoB), differ in many 

 structural points from 

 the Leporidoe, or hares 

 and rabbits, the most 

 manifest of these differ- 

 ences being their much 

 lesser size, apparent 

 absence of tail, shorter 

 ears, and their possess- 

 ing four limbs of nearly 



equal length. The pikas, or calling hares, have also a habit of 

 whistling, which has earned for them their latter appellation. 

 Nearly a dozen species have been described. 



The Alpine pika (Lagomys alpinus) is a small animal, from 

 nine to nine and a half inches long, which inhabits Siberia. It 

 is of a greyish brown colour above and yellowish grey beneath. 

 It generally burrows in the ground, and is nocturnal in its 

 habits, seldom coming out in the day-time, except on a dull and 

 cloudy day. It feeds on the scanty herbage of the higher 

 regions of Siberia, and displays a wise foresight in providing 

 for the long and dismal winters, when food would be unpro- 

 curable because of the covering of snow, by piling up small 

 stacks of herbage for winter use. 



Taking them altogether, the hares, whether Leporidce or 

 Lapomyidce, are a poor defenceless class of animals, harmless, 

 and nearly helpless, preyed on by every kind of bloodthirsty 

 animal, and preying on none. Such of their characteristics as 

 are protective to the race have been gradually improved by 

 nature's selecting hand, so that now there is nothing so fleet of 

 foot as the common hare, and nothing so prolific as the rabbit. 

 Our pity for them may be misplaced, as no doubt their lot, 

 such as it is, best tends to their own and other animals' 

 welfare. 



