STUDIES IN ANIMAL ^, , , fir _ 



SITY 



two are violent foes: the rabbits always destroy 

 the hares, and all sportsmen are aware that if the 

 rabbits be suffered to multiply on an estate, there 

 will be small chance of hares. 



Nevertheless, between species so distinct as these, 

 a new hybrid race has been reared by M. Eouy, of 

 Angouleme, who each year sends to market upward 

 of a thousand of his Leporides, as he calls them. 

 His object was primarily commercial, not scientific. 

 His experiments, extending from 1847 to the pres- 

 ent time, have not only been of great commercial 

 value introducing a new and valuable breed 

 but have excited the attention of scientific men, 

 who are now availing themselves of his skill and ex- 

 perience to help them in the solution of minor prob- 

 lems. It is enough to note here that these hybrids 

 of the hare and the rabbit are fertile, not only with 

 either hares or rabbits, but with each other. Thir- 

 teen generations have already been enumerated, 

 and the last remains so vigorous that no cessation 

 whatever is to be anticipated. 



In presence of this case (and others, though less 

 striking, might be named) there is but one alterna- 

 tive either we must declare that rabbits and hares 

 form one and the same species which is absurd 

 or we must admit that new types may be formed "by 

 the union of two existing races ; and, consequently, 

 that species are variable. If the doctrine of fixity 

 of species acknowledges the touchstone of hybrid- 

 ity, the fate of the doctrine is settled forever. 

 F 



