292 THE RODENTIA. 



England at one time importing for this purpose from 

 Australia, the enormous quantity of from 15,000,000 to 

 20,000,000 skins, although wild Rabbits were first intro- 

 duced into the Australian colonies, where they soon became 

 a pest, about fifty years ago. 



The skins of tame French and Belgian Rabbits or 

 Conies, which are raised in warrens or hutches, are in 

 great demand, because of the superior quality of their fur 

 and leather, and millions of them are used by furriers in 

 all parts of the world every year for a great variety of 

 purposes. 



Most of the skins are dyed brown or black before being 

 marketed, and are clipped or have the long hairs removed 

 before they are dyed so that they make an excellent imita- 

 tion of seal skin. The blue and white skins are generally 

 sold in their natural color, either full haired or sheared, 

 the latter often being used to make an imitation of Ermine. 



The Belgian skins are about the same quality as the 

 German. The French skins are of a higher grade, espe- 

 cially the large silver conies in which the dense blue 

 underfur is covered with white and silver grey hairs. 

 French dyed skins are darker at the roots than the Eng- 

 lish and Belgian. They are assorted according to size as 

 X, XX and XXX, and bundled in dozens. An original 

 case contains one hundred dozen skins. In smaller quan- 

 tities they are sold in "sets" of four dozen, made up of 

 one dozen X, two dozen XX and one dozen XXX. The 

 Belgian skins are sorted as XX, XXX and XXXX. 



