Ceap. IV. RABBITS : THEIR PARENTAGE. 107 



CHAPTER IV. 



DOMESTIC RABBITS. 



EOMESTIC RABBITS DESCENDED FKOM THE COMMON 'WILD RABBIT — ANCIENT 

 DOMESTICATION — ANCIENT SELECTION — LARGE LOP-EARED RABBITS — 

 VARIOUS BREEDS — FLrCTCATING CHARACTERS — ORIGIN OF THE HIMALAYAN 

 BREED — CURIOUS CASE OF INHERITANCE — FERAL RABBITS IN JAMAICA 

 AND THE FALKLAND ISLANDS — PORTO SANTO FERAL RABBITS — OSTEO- 

 LOGICAL CHARACTERS — SKULL — SKULL OP HALF-LOP RABBITS — VARIATIONS 

 IN THE SKULL ANALOGOUS TO DIFFERENCES IN DIFFERENT SPECIES OF 

 HARES — VERTEBRA — STERNUM — SCAPULA — EFFECTS OF USE AND DISUSE 

 ON THE PROPORTIONS OF THE LIMBS AND BODY — CAPACITY OF THE 

 SKULL AND REDUCED SIZE OF THE BRAIN — SUMMARY ON THE MODIFICA- 

 TIONS OF DOMESTICATED RABBITS. 



All naturalists, with, as far as I know, a single exception, 

 believe that the several domestic breeds of the rabbit are de- 

 scended from the common wild species ; I shall therefore 

 iescribe them more carefully than in the previous cases. 

 Professor Gervais ^ states " that the true wild rabbit is smaller 

 than the domestic; its proportions are not absolutely the 

 same ; its tail is smaller ; its ears are shorter and more 

 thickly clothed with hair ; and these characters, without 

 speaking of colour, are so many indications opposed to the 

 opinion which unites these animals under the same specific 

 denomination." Few naturalists will agree with this author 

 that such slight differences are sufficient to separate as 

 distinct species the wild and domestic rabbit. How extra- 

 ordinary it would be, if close confinement, perfect tameness, 

 unnatural food, and careful breeding, all prolonged during 

 many generations, had not produced at least some effect ! 

 The tame rabbit has been domesticated from an ancient jDeriod. 

 Confucius ranges rabbits among animals worthy to be sacri- 

 ficed to the gods, and, as he prescribes their multiplication, 

 they were probably at this early period domesticated in China. 

 They are mentioned by several of the classical writers. In 



' M, P. Gervais, ' Hist. Nat. des Mammiftres,' 1854, torn, i., p. 288, 



