CHAP. IX.] WILD RABBITS. 19.3 



The rabbit is another animal which has been introduced, and 

 has succeeded very well ; so that they abound over large parts 

 of the island. Yet, like the horses, they are confined within 

 certain limits ; for they have not crossed the central chain of 

 hills, nor would they have extended even so far as its base, if, as 

 the Gauchos informed me, small colonies had not been carried 

 there. I should not have supposed that these animals, natives of 

 northern Africa, could have existed in a climate so humid as 

 this, and which enjoys so little sunshine that even wheat ripen.* 

 only occasionally. It is asserted that in Sweden, which any one 

 would have thought a more favourable climate, the rabbit cannoJ 

 live out of doors. The first few pair, moreover, had here tc 

 contend against pre-existing enemies, in the fox and some large 

 hawks. The French naturalists have considered the black va- 

 riety a distinct species, and called it Lepus Magellanicus.* They 

 imagined that Magellan, when talking of an animal under the 

 name of ' conejos' in the Strait of Magellan, referred to this 

 species ; but he was alluding to a small cavy, which to this day 

 is thus called by the Spaniards. The Gauchos laughed at the 

 idea of the black kind being different from the grey, and they 

 said that at all events it had not extended its range any further 

 than the grey kind ; that the two were never found separate ; 

 and that they readily bred together, and produced piebald off- 

 spring. Of the latter I now possess a specimen, and it is marked 

 about the head differently from the French specific description. 

 This circumstance show^s how cautious naturalists should be in 

 making species ; for even Cuvier, on looking at the skull of one 

 of these rabbits, thought it was probably distinct ! 



The only quadruped native to the island "]• is a large wolf-like 

 fox (Canis antarcticus), which is common to both East and 



* Lesson's Zoology of the Voyac^e of the Coquille, torn. i. p. 168. Ail 

 the early voyagers, and especially Bougainville, distinctly state that the 

 wolf-like fox was the only native animal on the island. The distinction of 

 the rabbit as a species, is taken from peculiarities in the fur, from the shape 

 of the head, and from the shortness of the ears. I may here observe that 

 the difference between the Irish and English hare rests upon nearly similar 

 characters, only more strongly marked. 



t I have reason, however, to suspect that there is a field-mouse. The 

 common European rat and mouse have roamed far from the habitations of 

 the Settlers. The common hog has also run wild on one islet : all are of a 

 black colour : the boars are very fi.erce, and have great tusks. 



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