THE RABBIT OR CONY 197 



the first line also did duty in the Assembly of Foules (see above, 

 p, 183) ; the French original is : — 



Connins i avoient qui issoient 

 Toute jors hors de lor tesnieres, 

 Et en plus de trente manieres 

 Aloient entr'eus tornoiant 

 Sor I'erbe fresche verdoiant. 



The words " of sundry coloures " are not in the original, and were added 

 by Chaucer to fill up the line. Further, Skeat adds that " colour " is but 

 a vague word in Early English ; if Chaucer had intended the expression 

 to mean much, he would have used the word " hew-es " = " hues," a 

 native word, the meaning of which was open to no doubt, and which 

 would have filled up the line all right. The passage, therefore, signifies 

 nothing except that rabbits were well known in northern or central 

 France in about 1 260-1 270. 



The most conspicuous colour variations are whole blacks, yellows, 

 browns, silver-greys, or rarely, whites ; the silver-greys are usually black 

 in their first coat, and, like grey horses, which start life as blacks, arrive 

 at their final coloration by subsequent assumption of white hairs. Black 

 varieties may be distinguished at birth from the normal type ; in the 

 former the pigmented skin is darker and covers the whole body ; in 

 the normal the ventral area is pink or flesh-coloured (Hurst, op. cit., 303). 

 There are also parti-coloured varieties, and one or other of the above are 

 sometimes so numerous in warrens as to outnumber the type ; for 

 instance, at Hawkstone, Salop, late in the nineteenth century, the late 

 Lord Hill, after unremitting selection through several years, succeeded 

 in establishing a race of pure silver-greys. Sometimes one or other of 

 these varieties appears suddenly in numbers in a definite locality, thrives 

 for a time, and as suddenly disappears. One with long silky hair was 

 mentioned in 1816 by Neill (see also Fleming) as inhabiting the Isle of 

 May and other islands in the Firth of Forth ; it was still there down to 

 1887, and at one time appears to have been in exclusive possession. 

 It is now, however, no longer in existence, having probably been 

 '' swamped," as William Evans informs me, by repeated introductions of 

 the ordinary form. Sunk Island, on the Humber, was once famous for a 

 mouse-coloured race, which was extirpated on account of the damage 

 which it caused to the banks (Chamberlayne, Phil. Trans. Roy. Soc, 

 London, 1719, No. 361, 1014-1016 ; Pennant, British Zoology, ed. 2, 1778). 



Space does not permit a discussion of the numerous artificially 

 created domestic forms of the Rabbit. Many of these are very 

 distinct, both in colour and form, perfectly stable, and breed true. 

 But they can all be traced to the wild parent form, although it is not 

 known when or how it was first domesticated. Neither the ancient 

 Romans nor the Spaniards (see p. 184), mention any domesticated forms. 



