NOTES ON THE RABBIT. 403 



Huloet defines a coney-earth as a "clapper for conies." The 

 modern Greeks call Babbits Kow&ia, a word obviously modelled 

 on the Italian conigli. The Gypsies, tolerably close observers of 

 nature, call the Rabbit kanengro, the genitive plural of the Romani 

 word kan, an ear. But the common word for Hare, or Rabbit, in 

 all the European dialects of Romani is shosho, connected with a 

 Sanskrit root signifying " to leap." For this information I am 

 indebted to my friend Mr. Sampson, the Librarian of University 

 College, Liverpool, who has lived much with the Gypsies, and 

 were he not the most learned of librarians, would probably be 

 king of the Gypsies at present. 



The etymology of the word "rabbit" has been a matter of 

 dispute among the learned. But it seems quite certain that the 

 name was first of all applied only to the young of this rodent, 

 and the termination is none other than the French well-known 

 diminutive -ette, seen in briquette. In ' The Book of Nurture,' by 

 John Russell, Marshal in the Hall of Duke Humphrey of Gloucester, 

 a.d. 1424, we find directions given for carving " conies," and then 

 for carving and serving up theiryoung, which are called "rabettes." 

 Du Guez (cited in Furnivai's ' Index,' p. 74) gives as the French equi- 

 valent lapereau. The French use the word rabouillere for a Rabbit's 

 nest ; and it is possible that this may come from an older form of 

 rabou, from Spanish rabo, meaning a tail, in which case the French 

 may have merely adopted some local Spanish word, or a corruption 

 of it, and the English may have received the word from France. 



It would be interesting to know the exact geographical range 

 of the Rabbit in Europe at the present day. I much mistrust the 

 testimony of foreigners on such a subject. But an English sports- 

 man tells me that he shoots Rabbits every year in Andalusia ; 

 that they much resemble the English Rabbit, but are smaller and 

 leaner, especially about the head. An Italian sportsman says 

 there are a few Rabbits in Sicily, and has promised to procure a 

 skin for me.* A Greek gentleman writes me word that he has 

 never seen any in Greece, and does not remember to have seen 

 any in Corfu, but has been told that they are still to be found in 

 a small island near Pirseus called the Island of Komsundouros.f 



* In Italy there is no mention of the Eabbit before the time of Athenaeus 

 (a.d. 230), who observed it near Naples (Deipnosoph, ix, 64). — Ed. 



f There are both Babbits and Hares in the Cyclades, and their distribution 

 is somewhat curious. See Erhart, ' Die Wirbelthiere der Cykladen ; mit einer 

 karte iiber die Verbreitung der Hasen und Kaninchen,' 8vo, Leipzig, 1858* 

 See also Heldreich, 'La Faune de Grece,' 8vo, Athens, 1878, p. 14.— Ed. 



