194 LEPORID^— ORYCTOLAGUS 



North America has taken place under somewhat similar conditions 

 (Nelson, North Amer. Fauna, No. 29, 1909, 21). 



In the present state of knowledge, the ultimate origin of the Rabbit 

 is lost in obscurity. All that can be said is that its nearest modern 

 relatives appear to be the cottontails^ of North and South America; 

 but these, as shown above on p. 173, present a puzzling mixture of 

 characters which are diiiScult to interpret. If the resemblance be not, 

 as in the case of the water-shrews of Europe and North America,^ 

 merely due to convergence, then the Siwalik deposits of India may be 

 looked to for light by furnishing an extinct connecting link between 

 these two genera of the family inhabiting the Old and New Worlds. At 

 present such light is not forthcoming, since only one bone of a hare or 

 rabbit is known from these deposits, and that one, as Lydekker informs 

 me, is too fragmentary for satisfactory determination of its affinities. 

 For an African origin of the Rabbit, there is no evidence, which fact 

 seems to rule out a third suggestion, somewhat tentatively advanced by 

 Scharfif, namely, that the original connection between the Rabbit and 

 the cottontails was by some now submerged southern or equatorial 

 continent bridging the Atlantic.^ The subject is discussed in connection 

 with other mammals in the general Introduction. 



Droppings : — These are of the typical leporine type, as described 

 above on page 166. Their comparatively small diameter, measuring 

 only about 9 to 1 1 mm., distinguishes them from those of the hares, in 

 which the diameter reaches about 16 to ,19 mm., as well as from those 

 of goats, which are larger and not circular ; the latter, when fresh, are 

 usually attached to each other in a kind of string. Those of sheep, 

 although also larger, are somewhat similar, but are very dark in colour, 

 and do not show traces of herbage when dry. Rabbit droppings are 

 often deposited in a conspicuous manner on bare spaces such as the 

 surfaces of tree-stumps, or even on dry cow-dung. Their quantity 

 at any one spot is, of course, much less than in the case of larger 

 animals, such as sheep and goats, having droppings of similar 

 character. 



Description : — The general form and appearance, the skull and 

 teeth, of the Wild Rabbit are typical of its genus. It resembles a small 

 greyish hare, with shorter limbs, and longer recurved tail, carried lying 

 close along the back. The ears,* when bent forward, do not reach to 



' Genus Sylvilagus of Gray. 



^ Subgenus Neosorex ; see above, p. 127. 



^ The History of the European Fauna, 1899, 291 : "Its nearest living relatives, 

 as we should almost expect, are found in South America." 



^ Abnormal specimens are known wherein the ears are apparently absent ; the 

 deformity may be of various degrees, from those lacking pinnae, but possessing external 

 apertures, to those in which there is no opening to the exterior (see Catal. Coll. 

 Roy. College Surgeons). 



