THE RABBIT 



Varro ' suggests that the rabbit derived its name from 

 the burrow it forms, and Martial avers that rabbits 

 first taught men to undermine enemies' towns. - 



Cognate with the Latin cuniculus we have the 

 Itahan coniglio, Spanish conejo, Belgic konin, Danish 

 and Swedish kaning, German kaninclien. Old French 

 connin, Welsh cwningen, and Old English conyng and 

 coney, which, indeed, is our oldest name for the animal. 

 The word rabbit, anciently rabbet, was originally 

 applied only to the young animal. In the Promptorium 

 Parvulorum (1440) we find ' Rabet, a yonge conye,' 

 apparently derived through a French source, as 

 indicated by the diminutive termination, ette. In 

 Russell's ' Book of Nurture' (1424) we find rabbettes. 

 At the present day, as everyone knows, the name 

 rabbit is bestowed indifferently on young and old. 



Another name for the animal, to be found in 

 ancient books on hunting, is riote, the use of which 

 may be here referred to incidentally as explaining the 

 meaning of the phrase ' to run riot.' In an old MS. 

 preserved in the Bodleian Library we may read the 

 following instructive directions to a huntsman : — 



' What rache (i.e. a hound hunting by scent) that 

 renneth to a conyng yn any tyme, hym aughte to be 

 ascryed (i.e. assailed with a shout), saying to hym 



' De Re Rusiica, iii. 12, §6. 2 ^p{g^^ xiii. 60. 



