A LITTLE RABBIT HISTORY 13 



that it came from India. For a while it was 

 considered necessary in this country to call it 

 the Belgian hare rabbit, although, of course, 

 that was a ridiculous mixture of names. The 

 idea was to have people realize that it was 

 really a rabbit. It does not owe all of its im- 

 proved color to English breeders, for much 

 has been done in this country in the last twenty 

 years. The original color probably was a 

 common gray. There is reason to believe that 

 the Belgian hare and the Flemish Giant are 

 both descendants of the old Patagonian rabbit, 

 and the difference in coloring as well as in 

 size is due solely to the manner in which the 

 two lines have been handled. 



Sometimes the name of a rabbit is a fairly 

 safe index as to its origin. Thus the Hima- 

 layan rabbit probably came from the Hima- 

 laya Mountains. It has long been a popular 

 rabbit on the continent, being raised largely 

 for its fur, which when properly cured resem- 

 bles ermine. 



The English rabbit, too, is correctly named. 

 The popular theory is that it is an outgrowth 

 of the common English rabbit. It is a very 

 hard rabbit to breed to perfection, and that 



