VOL. LXIl.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 26Q 



This circumstance therefore establishes no more a specific difference between the 

 rabbit and the hare, than the greater length of the ears of a dog would, which in 

 some varieties of that animal are known to be excessively long. 



Mods, de Buffon, in his description of the hare and rabbit, agrees with Ray, 

 that there is nothing either exterior or interior which seems to constitute a 

 specific difference, though he endeavours to establish an incontestible proof that 

 they arc really distinct. He informs us, that he had tried to procure a breed 

 between rabbits and hares, but never could succeed in the experiment. This 

 most ingenious and able writer does not state, however, at what ages the hares 

 or rabbits were thus confined, which is known be a most material circumstance, 

 by those who have raised male canary birds.* 



In the 5th vol. of his Natural History, p. 210, Mons. de BufFon gives an 

 account of his making the same sort of experiment between the wolf and a dog, 

 in the following words: " J'ai fait clever une louve prise dans les bois, de deux 

 ou trois mois." In this passage, the word is applied to a wolf, of 3 months old, 

 and to show that Mons. de BufFon did not think the age at which the animal is 

 confined to be material in such an experiment, he immediately afterwards states, 

 that he caught some foxes in snares (which were probably therefore full grown), 

 and kept them a considerable time with dogs of different sexes. After this, he 

 says, it is evident from these experiments, that wolves, foxes, and dogs are 

 specifically different, without distinguishing between the foxes being full grown 

 when caught, and the wolf which was only 3 months old. But the decisive 

 argument against Mons. de Buffon's experiment not being satisfactory, is to be 

 found in Mr. Pennant's Synopsis of Quadrupeds, p. 144: where he informs us, 

 that a breed was actually procured between a dog and a wolf at Mr, Brooks's, 

 animal merchant, in Holborn. 



M. de Button also supposes that the rabbit is much more sagacious than the 

 hare, because, both having equal powers of burrowing, the one thus secures 

 himself from most enemies, while the other, by not taking the same precaution, 

 continues liable to their attacks. There are, however, several causes for the 

 rabbit's burrowing, and the hare's neglecting to do so. In the first place, the 

 fore-legs of a rabbit are shorter in proportion to its hind legs, and at the same 

 time much stronger; the claws are also longer and sharper, resembling much 

 those of a mole. It was before observed that the rabbits, which the sportsmen 

 call hedge rabbits, seldom burrow ; and they neglect taking this trouble, for the 

 same reason that induces the hare to trust to her form, because they have an 



• Birds which differ specifically scarcely ever breed except both are taken early from the nest, and 

 particularly the hen ; I have procured a breed from two robins in a cage the present year by attending 

 to this circumstance, and I believe I could equally succeed with almost any other kind of birds, aa 

 -when they are thus reared, they have not the least awe of man. — Orig. 



