H Y R A C E S 303 



per annum, and that they furnish sport to 10,000,000 hunters, which 

 may be somewhat overestimated. 49 



Before the outbreak of the World War, 100,000,000 rabbits were 

 marketed each year in France, $1,000,000 worth annually imported 

 from Belgium to England, England herself produced from 30,000,000 

 to 40,000,000, London consumed 500,000 pounds of rabbit meat daily 

 in 1911 and Paris 200,000, and $4,500,000 worth was imported from 

 Australia and New Zealand to London in 191 1. 50 About 35 years ago 

 the canning of rabbit meat for exportation to Europe was begun and 

 developed rapidly. 51 The United States Bureau of Home Economics 

 has^ recently issued a leaflet containing recipes for the cooking of rabbit 

 meat. 52 



There are reasons for suspecting that the flesh of varying hare in 

 the Mackenzie River region may not be very nourishing in the winter, 

 especially when used as an almost exclusive diet. "In summer, when 

 the animals live mainly on herbaceous plants, their flesh is very palata- 

 ble, though woefully lacking in nourishing qualities, but in winter, 

 when they feed largely on the foliage and bark of resinous trees, the 

 meat acquires a somewhat bitter taste. When Indians are living mainly 

 on rabbits, they call it 'starving,' though they may be eating bounte- 

 ously of the meat every two or three hours, and it is said that if 

 nothing else is obtainable, they gradually grow weaker on this diet." 5 

 Under the ancient Hebrew law hares were considered "unclean" and 

 forbidden as food for the people. 54 



ORDER HYRACES CONIES 



The conies of Asia Minor and eastern and southern Africa (Hyrax 

 capensis) are very different from the so-called conies of western North 

 American mountains. They are probably the conies of the Bible: "The 

 conies are but feeble folk," 1 "the prey of every predatory beast and 

 bird and reptile." 2 They were pronounced "unclean," in the Law of 

 Moses, therefore not to be eaten by the chosen people. 3 They live on 



49 Seton, Lives of game animals, iv, Pt. 2, p. 791, 1929. 



50 Dearborn, Rabbit growing to supplement the meat supply, Yearbook U. S. Dept. 

 Agric. for 1918, pp. 145-152; Rabbit raising, Farmers' Bull., No. 1090, 1920. 



51 Palmer, Yearbook U. S. Dept. Agric. for 1898, p. 93. 



62 Yeatman and Stienberger, Rabbit recipies, Bur. Home Econ. Leaflet No. 66-L, 

 1930. 



53 Preble, A biological investigation of the Athabaska-Mackenzie region, N. Amer. 

 Fauna, No. 27, p. 201, 1908. 



54 Leviticus, xi, 6; Deuteronomy, xiv, 7. 



1 Proverbs, xxx, 26. 



2 Jennison, Natural history: animals, p. 197, 1927. 

 8 Lev. xi, 5 ; Deut., xiv, 7. 



