BABBIT 85 



the prior of Pittenweem conveyed the island to Patrick 

 Learmonth of Dairsy, in which deed the island is described 

 as now waste, and spoiled by rabbits from which the 

 principal revenue used to accrue, but of which the warrens 

 were now completely destroyed and the place ruined by 

 the English. Bones of the Rabbit found in a "kitchen 

 midden" on Inchkeith ("Proceedings" of the Society of 

 Antiquaries of Scotland, ix., 453), may point to it as an 

 inhabitant of the islands of the Forth at a still earlier date, 

 though they may merely have belonged to an animal that had 

 made its burrow in the mound, and died there. In a charter 

 granted on 10th November 1621 by James VI. in favour of 

 the burgh of Peebles, we find "cunnings" and "cunningaries" 

 specifically mentioned (Chambers's " Peeblesshire," p. 544). 

 Sibbald, in his "Scotia Illustrate" (1684), says of the 

 Cuniculus, " of these there is great plenty everywhere 

 with us, especially on the coasts." l In the " Old Statistical 

 Account of Scotland," the Rabbit is often mentioned, 

 but chiefly as an inhabitant of maritime localities. In 

 vol. xvii., p. 577, we are told that when Binning wood, 

 at Tyninghame, was planted in 1707, "the East Links 

 . . . . were a dead and barren sand, with scarcely any 

 grass upon them, and of no use but as a rabbit-warren." 

 The extensive sand-dunes stretching along the coast behind 

 the village of Gullane, in East Lothian, have long been a 

 noted warren. De Saussure, the Swiss naturalist, who 

 visited these "grandes plaines de sable" in June 1807, 

 in company with Patrick Neill, tells us that " un tres-grand 

 n ombre de lapins sauvages habitent ces dunes " (" Voyage 

 en cosse," vol. i., p. 162). Again, we read in Stark's 

 " Picture of Edinburgh " (1834, p. 297), that the city market 

 was then plentifully supplied with rabbits " brought chiefly 

 1 " Horum raagna ubique apud nos copia, iii Littorc prxsertim." 



