172 LEPORID^— ORYCTOLAGUS 



Genus ORYCTOLAGUS. 



1758. Lepus, Carolus Linnaeus, Systema Natures, x., 57 ; xii., 77, 1766 (part) ; based 

 on L. iimidus of Linnasus — type, see Thomas, Proc. Zool. Soc. (London), March 

 191 1, 145 — L. cuniculus of Linnasus from Europe, and two other species. 



1790. Cuniculus, F. A. A. Meyer, Mag.fiir Thiergeschichte, L, i., 52-53 ; see also 

 Gloger, Gemeinnuiziges Hand- und Hilssbuch der Naturgeschichte, L, 104, 1842 ; 

 Gray, Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist., September 1867, 224 ; based on Lepus 

 campestris of Meyer = Z. cuniculus of Linnasus, but preoccupied by Cuniculus 

 of Brisson, RegnUm Animate, 1762, 13, a genus of Dipodida, and by Cuniculus 

 of Wagner, Natiirliches System der Amphibien, 1830, 21, a genus oi Muridce. 



1874. Oryctolagus, W. Lilljeborg, Sveriges och Norges Ryggradsdjur, i., 417; a 

 subgenus of Lepus, replacing the preoccupied Cuniculus, and based on Lepus 

 cuniculus of Linnaeus ; Trouessart ; Forsyth Major (part) ; Thomas, Ann. and 

 Mag. Nat. Hist., January 1903, 78-79 (genus) ; Lyon (genus) ; Nelson (genus). 



The synonymy is simple. 



Classification : — The generic separation of the hares and 

 rabbits, although only recently accepted, is supported by such 

 a long list of distinctive characters that a perusal of them will 

 surely be the best argument in its favour. 



The true rabbits, of which one wild species is known, are 

 active terrestrial rodents, of almost exclusively vegetarian and 

 predominantly graminivorous diet. They prefer a mixed 

 country, where an alternation of open fields and woods affords 

 them both food and shelter. They usually construct and 

 inhabit burrows, and differ from the hares (see genus Lepus) 

 in their plumper, more rounded body, shorter hind limbs, longer 

 tail, simpler pelage not subject to marked seasonal changes, 

 and in the white flesh, which resembles that of a common fowl. 

 They are extremely prolific, and drop their blind and naked 

 young underground. They do not usually wander far from 

 their burrows, and are unprovided with "recognition glands." 

 The structure of the forearm is primitive and not specially 

 modified either for speed, as in the hares, or, as might have 

 been expected, for digging — see Forsyth Major, Trans. Linnean 

 Soc. (London) Zool., Nov. 1899, 433, etc., published 1900. 

 This accounts for the fact that rabbits sometimes dispense 

 with burrows in hard soils. 



The mammae may be three or more pairs.' 



' Darwin, Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication, 186B, i., 106, 

 gives the number for the domestic variety known as the " Belgian hare " as six {i.e., 

 three pairs), and for other domestic forms as variable. 



