' LETTER XXXV. 



and propensities are very different, as well as their 

 fecundity, and several other distinguishing character- 

 istics ; and they also seem to have a natural aversion 

 for each ether. 



The rabbit lives to the age of nine or ten years. It 

 prefers a warm climate; and in Sweden, and other 

 northern regions, it cannot be reared but in houses. 

 It is common, however, ill all the temperate countries 

 of Europe. In Spain they had once become so nu- 

 merous, and were found so destructive to vegetation, 

 that the inhabitants were obliged to introduce ferrets 

 from Africa, in order to diminish their numbers. 



They abound in every part of Great Britain, espe- 

 cially in Cambridgeshire, Norfolk, and Lincolnshire, 

 and on the wolds of Yorkshire ; but in many of these 

 parts several warrens are lately converted into sheep 

 pasture, or tillage, and the number of rabbits is con- 

 sequently diminishing. 



The fecundity of the rabbit is astonishing, and ex- 

 hibits a curious article in the history of animated na- 

 ture. This little quadruped breeds seven times in 

 the year, and generally produces seven or eight 

 young at a time; whence may be calculated the 

 wonderful and almost incredible increase of which a 

 single pair might in a few years be capable; but as 

 their propagation. is rapid, their enemies are also nu- 

 merous. Foxes, foumarts, and almost all animals of 

 f iu; weasel kind, make them their prey, without reck- 

 oning the immense numbers taken for the use of man* 

 Indeed, if a considerable reduction did not by va- 

 rious means take place, there is every reason to be- 

 lieve that their numbers would exceed the means of 

 support, and totally consume the whole vegetable 

 produce of the country. In this animal, therefore, as 

 well as in many others, \ve discover a striking dis- 

 play of the wisdom of the Creator, in so exactly pro- 

 portioning the measure of fecundity and destruction. 



The rabbit is not 'miong the indigenous animals of 

 America; but in many of the West-India islands there 

 'are great numbers, which have originated from a stock 

 carried thither from the old continent. 

 4 



