ANIMALS INTRODUCED FOR SAKE OF UTILITY 247 



Thibetan Yak and Galloway Cattle. is being created at the 

 experimental station to supply the need for unusual hardiness, 

 for already crosses between the Yak and the domestic cattle 

 of the East have proved of great service in Turkestan and 

 other parts of Asia. 



APPEARANCE AND SPREAD OF THE RABBIT 



Apart from the introduced domestic animals, the most 

 important creature to have been planted in Scotland from 

 foreign parts simply for the sake of its yield, is the Rabbit. 

 Its universal presence belies its alien blood, and one would 

 scarcely associate with its homely and unassuming aspect 

 the interest of its history. It is generally held by naturalists 

 that the Common Rabbit (Oryctolagus (Lepus) cuniculus], 

 as we know it to-day, spread from the south-western portions 

 of Europe bordering upon the Mediterranean Sea, an area 

 to which it had been relegated by the severities of the Ice 

 Age. From these regions, partly by natural roving, much 

 more by the deliberate influenceof man, the Rabbit has spread 

 over the western and central countries of Europe, and from 

 there it has been transported to the uttermost ends of the 

 earth. 



At what period the Rabbit was re-established in Britain 

 after its extermination during the Glacial Period, is a matter 

 of great uncertainty. In Scotland its bones have been found 

 amongst the debris of the kitchen-middens of Neolithic and 

 later times, as well as in the upper layers of cave deposits ; 

 but little weight need be attached to these occurrences, for 

 the Rabbit is a burrower and a vandal which makes short 

 cuts through the neat layers and classifications of the ex- 

 cavator, so that a contemporary of our own might rest its 

 .bones by the side of the long extinct Mammoth to the con- 

 founding of interpreters of the past. 



As a matter of fact, testimony points strongly to the 

 absence of the Rabbit in prehistoric Britain. In Scotland its 

 remains are absent from the bone deposits which have been 

 found deep below the surface, beyond the reach of modern 

 burrows. Julius Caesar mentions the occurrence in Britain of 

 the Hare, the Hen and the Goose, but omits the Rabbit. Nor 

 was it introduced by the Romans as is commonly believed. 



