THE COMMON RABBIT. 375 



brown -, the neck rather red ; the throat and belly white ; the 

 ears brownish grey ; and the upper surface of the tail is brown, 

 the lower white. A perfectly black variety of the rabbit is, 

 according to Mr. Lansdown Guilding, occasionally found in the 

 woods about Gloucester ; and Mr. J. V. Stewart says, that a 

 black and also a fox-coloured variety are found in Donegal, 

 Ireland. The common tame breeds of the rabbit are probably 

 only artificial varieties of the common wild species, differing 

 from it in size, form, and colour, in consequence of their having 

 been kept in a confined or domesticated state, and regularly and 

 abundantly supplied with very nutritious, and often unnatural 

 food. Under these circumstances, their muscles, from not being 

 exercised in the search after food, and in flying from danger, 

 become rigid and comparatively powerless, or are not fully 

 developed, though the size of their body increases. In the 

 course of generations they become much larger than their wild 

 brethren j but if set at liberty in a proper situation, they would 

 most likely return, in a very few generations, to the form, size, 

 and agility which is natural to their species in a wild state. 

 With regard merely to the colour of rabbits, differences are 

 not uncommon in individuals of the same litter. Dr. Robert 

 Townson, mentions his seeing several young rabbits with fur 

 exactly like the Angora breed, but which were the offspring of 

 two common rabbits, from which others of the same litter 

 differed in no respect. Albino varieties are also common.* It 

 may here be remarked, that when albinoes of animals whose 

 natural colour is brown (as the rabbit and the mouse), are 

 paired with one of the latter colour, they sometimes produce 

 a black, sandy, or slate-coloured offspring, or an individual 

 with one of these colours, more or less varied with white, is 

 produced ; but in the majority of instances, the young wholly 

 resemble one of their parents, and the preponderance is de- 



* Albinoes generally have red eyes ; but Mr. Blyth says, he has seen an 

 albino rabbit with one eye red and the other dark hazel. Similar instances 

 of disparity in the colour of the eyes I have already mentioned, as occurring 

 among cats, and even mankind. (See page 262.) 



