eae ans a er ee oie WR ie 
On with the experiment, but I am afraid 
WOODRUFFE-PEACOCK : LINCOLNSHIRE NATURALISTS. 323 
(5) A tradition has long attached to the moor over which I shoot 
(Kirkby Moor, near Woodhall Spa), that the hare and rabbit do 
occasionally inter-breed. There is a specimen there at large at the 
present time, and Mr. H. M. Hawley, of Tumby Lawn, has recently 
had one stuffed which he shot in Tumby Wood. . 
(6) I killed a specimen by a kick, as it squatted in the ling, and 
the Colonel of the 42nd Highlanders, who was shooting with me at 
the time, agreed that it must be such a cross. 
(7) There were several letters in ‘The Field’ newspaper, some 
years ago, in which the possibility of such a cross was discussed, 
and while, as we might say, there were six against it, there were half 
a dozen in favour of it. 
That was my reply. 
Mr. Walter Heape, in one of his letters, says: ‘I am aware that 
many naturalists deny that Hares and Rabbits will breed together. 
I am not, however, myself of that opinion, but I have never had 
satisfactory proof of such a cross occurring. 
He adds, however, that, in the year 1773, the Abbé Demonico 
Gagliari got two litters from a female Hare by a male Rabbit ; that 
Richard Thursfield also got hybrids of these two species; that 
Mons. Rou 1847, established a breed of ‘Leporides, in 
P 
Rabbits (male) are generally known. He says, however, that Mons. 
Broca states that there are anatomical differences between Hare 
and Rabbit which make it unlikely that they should interbreed ; and 
that the best way to prove it would be to get a male leveret and 
young doe Rabbit, and bring them up together ; although they are 
less likely to inter-breed in confinement than in a state of nature. 
So far Mr. Walter Heape. I may add that last autumn I myself 
Caught a male leveret and put a young doe wild Rabbit in the cage 
With it. The leveret became fairly tame, and would sit on : : 
kitchen table, and drink milk, and eat from the hand; but a wil 
Rabbit is, I think, a four-legged Ishmaelite, generally untameable, 
and it lately ate its way out of the cage and escaped. I sah a 
got another young doe wild Rabbit, about thre¢-parts grown, to 
young doe w that the difficulty is now 
increased in getting them to cohabit, as he Pie tad 
together. [| may here mention that our host of tcey 
4 cross between rabbit and guinea pig- 
tae 
‘Noy, 1807, 
