THE SABBIT. 



voured to bring up from tbe nest a litter of wild rabbits must 

 be inclined to the same opinion. " Fancy rabbits," says Mr. 

 Eogers, in his treatise, " are not, as is generally supposed, the 

 result of an improvement (P) in the English breed of rabbits, 

 but were originally brought from Tartary, Persia, and Asia 

 Minor, and have been made the means of improving the 

 domestic breeds in this country. They require morr warmth 

 than the common English domestic rabbit, and thrive best in 

 an atmosphere the warmth of which varies from temperate to 

 summer-heat. The common domestic rabbit will do in colder 

 and more exposed situations, but the fancy rabbit degenerates 

 unless carefolly attended and kept from cold and wet." 



Without, however, declaring that Mr. Eogers is wrong, as 

 unceremoniously as he asserts that he is right, it must be ad- 

 mitted that his argument cannot be accepted without question. 

 Even more flagrant instances of the utter perversion of an 

 animal's' shape and ftir, nay, of its very nature, may be quoted 

 against the case of the rabbit. Look at the dog. Compare 

 the Blenheim spaniel with the bloodhound, or the Skye terrier 

 with the bulldog. Whatever diversity of opinion may exist 

 respecting the dog's origin, nobody entertains the notion that 

 the animal is derived from more than one source. A certain 



ANQORA BABBIT. 



animal, whatever its name, wolf, fox, or jackal, is without 

 doubt the founder of the dog tribe, with its more than fifty 

 different shapes and habits, and this allowed, one need not 

 damagingly strain one's imagination in tracing even the long- 

 haired Angora rabbit back to the humble warrener. ITature is 

 wonderfully elastic. The arctic bear, imported to a warmer 

 cKmate, loses the snowy whiteness that, assimilating with all 

 its surroundings, at once secured to it its prey and saved it 

 frequently from the hands of the hunter ; the kangaroo confined 

 in a cage, and having no farther need for its wonderful pouch 



