56 Permanence and Evolution. 



or the season of the year. As he says quite 

 truly, if nothing else was known of them they 

 would be universally put down as a good 

 species. But they are supposed by him to be 

 the offspring of escaped rabbits, on the authority 

 of a story in the narrative of Cadamosto, and in 

 local histories of Porto Santo, to the effect that 

 Zarco, the founder of the colony, about 1418, had 

 a female rabbit on board which littered on the 

 voyage, and the mother and young were turned 

 loose on the island, and that from them were 

 descended an innumerable multitude of rabbits. 

 It is difficult to speak seriously of this tale as 

 the foundation for grave scientific conclusions, 

 but Darwin reasons gravely on the details " as 

 the rabbit was taken for food, it is unlikely she 

 should be of any peculiar breed " (what breed of 

 rabbits was most common in Portugal, circa 

 1418), "that the breed was well domesticated 

 was shown by her having littered on board, etc." 

 Pursuing the same line of investigation, one 



