: ! 



370 



MONOGRAPHS OP NORTH AMENICAN RODBNTIA. 



Li'jiiis r.unkulux, and, as Waloilioiise observes, is from (lie Dutch Itohbehen. 

 The species was also often aiunenlly called Cony in England, and is gencndly 

 known l)y some analogous word in other European countries, the Italians 

 calling it ConigUo; the Spaniards, Conrjo; the Welch, Cwningen; the Danes 

 and Swedes, Kaning, etc., all traceable, as etymologists tell us, to the Latin 

 word cunkiilus. lltihbit is as distinctively a specific name as is its Latin 

 (■(piivalent cunicuhis in scientific nomenclature, or as Robin is in America for 

 the designation of a particular kind of Thrush. Hence Rabbit is properly 

 ap|)licable to the Lcpvs cuntculus, nr.J to no other species of the Hare family. 



Hare, on the contrary, is a.s mud; a generic or family name as is either 

 Mouse, S(|uirrcl, l^at, Ilawk, or Thrush, and may be properly applied to any 

 species of the family. In England, when \iscd without a qualitying word, 

 it refers to the "Common Hare", or Lepus curopccus {z=.tiini(lus of authors 

 generally), ami its unmodified equivalent is similarly used in other Euro- 

 pean countries. The analogues of Hare, as Haas o{ the Dutch, Hasfi of 

 the Germans, Hare of the Danes and Swedes, etc., are also similarly 

 used for the designation of any species of the Hare family, to which are 

 added qualifying words to indicate particular species, as in English we speak 

 of the Varying Hare, the Polar Hare, the Mediterranean or Sardinian Hare, 

 J'rairie Hare, etc.* 



It hence follows that, strictly speaking, the term Ktihbit is not applicable 

 to any species of American Hare ; the term Hare, with some qualifying word, 

 as Marsh Hare, Califoruian Hare, etc., being technically the only admissible 

 appellative for our indigenous species. Practically, however, the terms 

 Hare and Rabbit in this country have become interchangeable, cither desig- 

 nation being used for any of the species according to individual predilection, 

 though generally, perhaps, there is a tendency to restrict the name Hare to 

 the larger species. Hence the terms Rubbit and Hare have, in the United 

 Slates at least, ceased to become distinctive of any specific diversity or peculi- 

 arities of habit or structure. The Rabbit proper, or the Lepus cuniculuK, difl'ers 

 from most oilier species of the thmily in its habit of burrowing, and from 

 most of the other Old Worhl species in the shortness of its hind legs. Many 

 of our American species, however, resort more or less habitually to the 

 deserted burrows of other animals for jirotection, cither from their enemies 



* WnturlioiiHe, in liiB uxcnileiit work on tliv Itodmtia, itcrii|iiiloiiBly npplieii tlie term Hare to uvery 

 ii|M'ciui) of tbu >Iiire family, except L, cuviculut, wliich be calU ' the Knbbit or Cuuy ", the latter uaiue 

 being tbo one nucieutly in general use for this apecioB. 



