542 THE RABBIT 



CHAP. 



that it is practically hairless ; the eyelids are at first 

 coherent. As many as eight or ten young are produced 

 at a birth, and the period of gestation, i.e., the time 

 elapsing between the fertilisation of the ovum and the 

 birth of the young animal, is thirty days. Fresh broods 

 may be born once a month throughout a considerable 

 part of the year, and, as the young rabbit may begin 

 breeding at the age of three months, the rate of increase 

 is very rapid. 



The class Mammalia is divided into a number of orders, 

 that to which the rabbit belongs being called the Rodentia 

 and also including rats and mice, squirrels, beavers, 

 porcupines, and many others. All these are vegetable 

 feeders and are mostly of small size. They possess no 

 canine teeth, and their incisors, which are adapted for 

 gnawing, are never more than two in number in the 

 lower jaw, and in most of them there are only two in 

 the upper jaw also. 



PRACTICAL DIRECTIONS 



The specimen used should be over three months old. 

 Place it in a sufficiently large jar or box with a close-fitting 

 lid together with a piece of cotton-wool well soaked in 

 chloroform, and leave it until a short time after all move- 

 ments have ceased. 



A pair of bone-forceps (p. 12) will be required. 



A. External characters (see pp. 483-487). 

 Microscopic preparations of the skin of a Mammal should 



be examined, and the hairs, hair-sacs, and sebaceous glands 

 (Fig. 131) noted. (For mode of preparation, see p. i.V>.) 



B. Skeleton. If more convenient, the detailed examina- 

 tion of the skeleton may be postponed until after the soft 

 parts have been dissected. 



The skeleton of a young rabbit, about six weeks old, as 

 well as that of an adult, should be obtained for examination : 

 the former is the more important of the two for making out 

 the individual bones, which should all be separated from one 



