TAMENESS OF RABBITS. 77 



lowing considerations will show that the greater 

 part, if not the whole, of the change must be 

 attributed to selection rather than to the direct 

 inheritance of acquired habit. 



(1) For a period which may cover thousands of 

 generations, there has been an entire cessation of 

 the natural selection which maintains the wildness 

 (or excessive fear, caution, activity, &c.) so indis- 

 pensably essential for preserving defenceless wild 

 rabbits of all ages from the many enemies that 

 prey upon them. 



(2) During this same extensive period of time 

 man has usually killed off the wildest and bred 

 from the tamest and most manageable. To some 

 extent he has done this consciously. " It is very 

 conducive to successful breeding to keep only such 

 as are quiet and tractable," says an authority on 



rabbits, 1 and he enjoins the selection of the 







1 E. S. Delamer on Pigeons and Rabbits, pp. 132, 103. For 

 other points referred to, see pages 133, 102, 100, 95, 131. 



