118 DOMESTIC RABBITS. Chap. IV. 



me three more specimens in brine, and two alive. These 

 seven specimens, though caught at diiferent periods, closely 

 resetnhled each other. They were full grown, as shown by 

 the state of their bones. Although the conditions of life in 

 Porto Santo are evidently highly favourable to rabbits, as 

 proved by their extraordinarily rapid increase, yet they differ 

 conspicuously in their small size from the wild English 

 rabbit. Four English rabbits, measured from the incisors to 

 the anus, varied between 17 and 171 inches in length ; whilst 

 two of the Porto Santo rabbits were only 14^ and 15 inches 

 in length. But the decrease in size is best shown by weight ; 

 four wild English rabbits averaged 3 lb. 5 oz., whilst one of 

 the Porto Santo rabbits, which had lived for four years in the 

 Zoological Gardens, but had become thin, weighed only 1 lb. 

 9 oz. A fairer test is afforded by the comparison of the well- 

 cleaned limb-bones of a Porto Santo rabbit killed on the island 

 with the same bones of a wild English rabbit of average size, 

 and they differed in the proportion of rather less than five to 

 nine. So that the Porto Santo rabbits have decreased nearly 

 three inches in length, and almost half in weight of body.^* 

 The head has not decreased in length proportionally with the 

 body; and the capacity of the brain case is, as we shall 

 hereafter see, singularly variable. I prepared four skulls, 

 and these resembled each other more closely than do generally 

 the skulls of wild English rabbits ; but the only difference in 

 structure which they presented was that the supra-orbital 

 processes of the frontal bones were narrower. 



In colour the Porto Santo rabbit differs considerably from 

 the common rabbit ; the upper surface is redder, and is rarely 

 interspersed with any -black or black -tipped hairs. The 

 throat and certain parts of the under surface, instead of being 

 pure white, are generally pale grey or leaden colour. But 

 the most remarkable difference is in the ears and tail ; I have 

 examined many fresh English rabbits, and the large collection 



^^ Something of the same kind has countryman tm-ned out some rabbits 



occurred on the island of Lipari, which multiplied prodigiously, but, 



where, according to Spallanzani says Spallanzani, " les lapins de I'ile 



(' Voyage dans les deux Siciles,' quoted de Lipari sont plus petits que ceus 



by Godron, ' De I'Espfece,' p. 364), a qu'on elfeve en domesticite." 



