Chap. IV. FERAL RABBITS. Ill 



It is, also, remarkable that Himalayans, though produced so 

 suddenly, breed true. But as, whilst young, they are albinoes, 

 the case falls under a very general rule ; for albinism is well 

 known to be strongly inherited, as with white mice and many 

 other quadrupeds, and even with white flowers. But why, it 

 may be asked, do the ears, tail, nose, and feet, and no other 

 part of the body, revert to a black colour? This apparently 

 depends on a law, which generally holds good, namely, that 

 characters common to many species of a genus — and this, in 

 fact, implies long inheritance in common from the ancient pro- 

 genitor of the genus — are found to resist variation, or to reappear 

 if lost, more persistently than the characters which are con- 

 fined to the separate species. Now, in the genus Lepus, a large 

 majority of the species have their ears and the upper surface of 

 the tail tinted black ; but the persistence of these marks is best 

 seen in those species which in winter become white: thus, in 

 Scotland the L. variabilis™ in its winter dress has a shade of 

 colour on its nose, and the tips of its ears are black : in the L. 

 tibetanus the ears are black, the upper surface of the tail greyish- 

 black, and the soles of the feet brown : in L. glacialis the winter 

 fur is pure white, except the soles of the feet and the points of 

 the ears. Even in the variously-coloured fancy rabbits we may 

 often observe a tendency in these same parts to be more darkly 

 tinted than the rest of the body. Thus, as it seems to me, the 

 appearance of the several coloured marks on the Himalayan 

 rabbit, as it grows old, is rendered intelligible. I may add a 

 nearly analogous case : fancy rabbits very often have a white 

 star on their foreheads ; and the common English hare, whilst 

 young, generally has, as I have myself observed, a similar white 

 star on its forehead. 



When variously coloured rabbits are set free in Europe, and 

 are thus placed under their natural conditions, they generally 

 revert to the aboriginal grey colour; this may be in part due 

 to the tendency in all crossed animals, as lately observed, to 

 revert to their primordial state. But this tendency does not 

 always prevail ; thus silver-grey rabbits are kept in warrens, and 

 remain true though living almost in a state of nature ; but a 



00^ Chouse, 'Natural History of Marnmalia : Rodents/ 1846, pp. 52, 



