ANIMALS INTRODUCED FOR SAKE OF UTILITY 251 



The value of the warrens gave rise to a series of laws 

 dealing with offences against their "breakirs." In 1503 it 

 was ordained that stealing of "cunings" was to be a point of 

 "dittay," or criminal prosecution, the " unlaw " being iO', 

 and in 1551, in consequence of "the great and exhorbitant 

 dearth, "young Rabbits were given protection for three years, 

 except from noblemen with Hawks, the law demanding 

 " That na maner of persoun tak upone hand to slay ony 

 Lapronis," lapron or laprinn being a common Old Scots 

 term for a young Rabbit. At this time, the price of a 

 Rabbit was fixed by a long forgotten food controller : 

 "Item, the cunning 2 shillings unto the feast of Fastens 

 evin [Shrove Tuesday] next to cum, and fra thine furth 

 twelve pennies " equivalent to the price of a brace of 

 Blackcock, while the " best Lapron " fetched only zd. 



Nevertheless the success of the Rabbit's introduction 

 proved a burden even in the early days of the century ; 

 witness the grievance of " Schir Robert Egew, Chaiplan 

 to My Lord Sinclair" who complains in 1511, "Ther wilbe 

 our [over] mony cunningis [:] with[in] twa yeir thai have 

 riddillit all the erdis of the Linkis richt weille." 



Perhaps nothing illustrates the progress of the Rabbit 

 in the sixteenth century so strikingly as its wide distri- 

 bution among the islands of Scotland. In 1529 "Jo. Ben." 

 in his slovenly Latin, describes its abundance in the Orkney 

 Islands : in the parish of Sandwick, in the uninhabited isle 

 of Lambholme, where many Rabbits were slain by men of 

 other islands, and in Sanday, where in winter the Rabbits 

 became so tame, owing most likely to overstocking and 

 consequent lack of food, that they were caught in the houses 

 of the people. Monro found similar evidence of great 

 numbers in the Hebrides: on Mull, on "Inche Kenzie...full 

 of cunings about the shores of it," and on " Sigrain-moir- 

 Magoinein, that is to say the Cuninges ile, quherin ther 

 are many cuninges," as well as in the 'Orkneys on "ane 

 little iyle, with a chapel in it, callit Cavay." And Von 

 Wedel, a German nobleman and traveller, remarked upon 

 the many Rabbits of the Bass Rock when he visited the 

 Lowlands of Scotland in 1584. 



It is unnecessary to enter into" further detail regarding 

 the spread of the Rabbit within our borders, for with the 



