346 LEPORID^. 



in numbers, its most dreaded foe is man, who pursues it 

 with guns, traps, nets, dogs, and ferrets. 



The Rabbit is well known in a domesticated state. It 

 then varies much in colour, being brown, fawn, reddish- 

 brown, or black, more or less mixed with white, and it is 

 very subject to albinism, which is perpetuated as a fixed 

 race. The fur is sometimes much lengthened, as in the 

 so-called " Angora " breed ; while in what are known as 

 " Fancy-Rabbits " the ears are enormously elongated and 

 droop so much as to touch the ground. This last deve- 

 lopment is associated with a very curious change in the 

 bones of the skull, of which an interesting account will 

 be found in Mr. Darwin's work on the " Variation of 

 Animals and Plants under Domestication." The flesh of 

 the tame Rabbit is very inferior in flavour to that of the 

 wild, but the former is more esteemed in London on 

 account of its greater tenderness. 



Besides the changes produced by domestication, this 

 species presents us with a very curious instance of varia- 

 tion in a wild state, of which Mr. Darwin has given a full 

 account in the work just alluded to. In the island of 

 Porto Santo, near Madeira, there is a feral breed which is 

 known to have descended from some tame Rabbits which 

 were turned down in 1418 or 1419 by J. Gonzales Zarco. 

 These Rabbits are now much smaller than their European 

 relatives, being nearly one-third less in weight ; the upper 

 parts are much redder, and the lower surface is more grey, 

 while the tail is reddish-brown above. Two which were 

 brought to England would not breed or even associate 

 with other Rabbits, and if their history had not been 

 known they would certainly have been regarded as belong- 

 ing to a perfectly distinct species. 



Our English word Rabbit is allied to the Dutch Itohbe, 

 Robbeken ; the origin of both is very doubtful, though 



