442 SALT-PONDS. 



that while the prevailing colour of those of the Eu- 

 ropean warren is what BufFon calls the grey, and 

 which he defines to be a mixture of tawny, black, 

 and ash-colour, these of our savannas are silver- 

 sable, — the variety which he describes under the 

 name of ' Le Riche,' — the slate-coloured rabbit, 

 deeply tinted, with sprinklings of white on the neck, 

 on the shoulders, and on the back, softening oft" to 

 blue-white under the breast and belly. 



*' Our savannas in the rainy seasons are generally 

 an inch or two under water, but the pinguins, being 

 banked, form, through the most drenching weather, 

 a secure asylum from inundation. Here they burrow 

 and breed, and find more than usual supplies of food 

 in the fields of Guinea-corn, the Holcus sorghum, 

 which is a staple article of cultivation in salt-ponds, 

 and in the customary roots and vegetables, par- 

 ticularly the Convolvulus batatas, or Sweet potato, 

 which are grown in the negro grounds. 



" ' Our Rabbit,' says the Pere du Tertre in his 

 General History of the Antilles, ' was early intro- 

 duced into the American Islands, and succeeded 

 well.' ' Y ont tres-bien reussi,' are words that im- 

 ply they were established successfully, but whether 

 in a state of domestication, or as inhabitants of the 

 wilderness, I am not able to determine. I have not 

 heard that they are common in any of the Antilles, 

 great or small, but as Leo Africanus and Bosman 

 represent them to be natural to Africa and Asia, and 

 delighting in excessive heat, one wonders why so little 

 progress has been made in stocking our fields with an 

 animal supplying a delicate dish wherever it has 



