Chap. IV. RABBITS : THEIR PARENTAGE. 103 



CHAPTEE IV. 



DOMESTIC RABBITS. 



DOMESTIC RABBITS DESCENDED FKOM THE COMMON WILD RABBIT — ANCIENT DOMESTI- 

 CATION — ANCIENT SELECTION — LARGE LOP-EARED RABBITS — VARIOUS BREEDS 

 — FLUCTUATING CHARACTERS — ORIGIN OF THE HIMALAYAN BREED — CURIOUS 

 CASE OF INHERITANCE — FERAL RABBITS IN JAMAICA AND THE FALKLAND ISLANDS — 

 PORTO SANTO FERAL RABBITS — OSTEOLOGICAL CHARACTERS — SKULL — SKULL OF 

 HALF-LOP RABBITS — VARIATIONS IN THE SKULL ANALOGOUS TO DIFFERENCES IN 

 DIFFERENT SPECIES OF HARES — VERTEBRA — STERNUM — SCAPDLA — EFFECTS 

 OF USE AND DISUSE ON THE PROPORTIONS OF THE LIMBS AND BODY — CAPACITY OF 

 THE SKULL AND REDUCED SIZE OF THE BRAIN — SUMMARY ON THE MODIFICATIONS 

 OF DOMESTICATED RABBITS. 



All naturalists, with, as far as I know, a single exception, 

 believe that the several domestic breeds of the rabbit are de- 

 scended from the common wild species ; I shall therefore describe 

 them more carefully than in the previous cases. Professor 

 Gervais 1 states "that the true wild rabbit is smaller than the 

 domestic ; its proportions are not absolutely the same ; its tail 

 is smaller; its ears are shorter and more thickly clothed with 

 hair; and these characters, without speaking of colour, are so 

 many indications opposed to the opinion which unites these 

 animals under the same specific denomination." Few natu- 

 ralists will agree with this author that such slight differences 

 are sufficient to separate as distinct species the wild and domestic 

 rabbit. How extraordinary it would be, if close confinement, 

 perfect tameness, unnatural food, and careful breeding, all 

 prolonged during many generations, had not produced at least 

 some effect ! The tame rabbit has been domesticated from an 

 ancient period. Confucius ranges rabbits among animals worthy 

 to be sacrificed to the gods, and, as he prescribes their multipli- 

 cation, they were probably at this early period domesticated in 

 China. They are mentioned by several of the classical writers. 



1 M. P. Gervais, ' Hist. Nat. des Mammiteres,' torn, i., 185-1, p. 288. 



