128 



DOMESTIC RABBITS: 



Chap. IV, 



side of the twelfth dorsal verteb and I have seen this in no other 

 specimen. ^^ 



Fig. 14. — Dorsal Vertebra, from sixth to tenth inclusive, of natural size, viewed laterally. 

 A. Wild Rabbit. B. Large, Hare-coluured, so called Spanish Rabbit. 



Lumbar 



the 



large 



Vertehriz. — I have stated that in two cases there were 

 eight instead of seven lumbar vertebrae. The 

 third lumbar vertebrae in one skeleton of a 

 wild British rabbit, and in one of the Porto 

 Santo feral rabbits, had a haemal spine ; 

 whilst in four skeletons of large lop-eared 

 rabbits, and in the Himalayan rabbit, this 

 same vertebra had a well developed haemal 

 spine. 



I'elvis. — In four wild specimens this bone 

 was almost absolutely identical in shape ; but 

 in several domesticated breeds shades of 

 differences could be distinguished. In the 

 large lop-eared rabbits, the whole upper part 

 of the ilium is straighter, or less splayed out- 

 wards, than in the wild rabbit; and the 

 tuberosity on the inner hp of the anterior 

 and upper part of the ihum is proportionally 

 more prominent. 



Sternum. — The posterior end of the pos- 

 terior sternal bone in the wild rabbit (fig. 15, 

 a) is thia and slightly enlarged ; in some ot 

 lop-eared rabbits (b) it is much more enlarged towards 



Fig. 15. — Terminal bone of 

 Sternum, of natural size. 

 A. Wild Rabbit. B. Hare- 

 coloured, Lop-eared Rabbit. 

 C. Hare-coloured. Spanish 

 Rabbit. (N.B. The left- 

 hand angle of the upper 

 articular extremity of B 

 was brolcen.and has been 

 accidentally thus repre- 

 sented.) 



I have been informed by the game- 

 keeper, from variously-coloured do- 

 mestic rabbits which had been turned 

 out. They vary in colour ; but 

 many are symmetrically coloured, 



being white with a streak along the 

 spine, and with the ears and certain 

 marks about the head of a blackish- 

 grey tint. They have rather longer 

 bodies than common rabbits. 



