Chap. IV. DIFFERENCES IN THEIR SKELETONS. 115 



whether they were much hunted by the inhabitants, or persecuted 

 by hawks, or cats, or other animals ; but this is not the case, and 

 no cause can be assigned for their wildness. They live on the 

 central, higher rocky land and near the sea-cliffs, and, being 

 exceedingly shy and timid, seldom appear in the lower and 

 cultivated districts. They are said to produce from four to six 

 young at a birth, and their breeding season is in July and 

 August. Lastly, and this is a highly remarkable fact, Mr. 

 Bartlett could never succeed in getting these two rabbits, which 

 were both males, to associate or breed with the females of several 

 breeds which were repeatedly placed with them. 



If the history of these Porto Santo rabbits had not been 

 known, most naturalists, on observing their much reduced 

 size, their reddish colour above and grey beneath, with neither 

 tail nor ears tipped with black, would have ranked them 

 as a distinct species. They would have been strongly 

 confirmed in this view by seeing them alive in the Zoological 

 Gardens, and hearing that they refused to couple with other 

 rabbits. Yet this rabbit, which there can be little doubt would 

 thus have been ranked as a distinct species, has certainly ori- 

 ginated since the year 1420. Finally, from the three cases of 

 the rabbits which have run wild in Porto Santo, Jamaica, and 

 the Falkland Islands, we see that these animals do not, under 

 new conditions of life, revert to or retain their aboriginal cha- 

 racter, as is so generally asserted to be the case by most 

 authors. 



Osteological Characters. 



When we remember, on the one hand, how frequently it is 

 stated that important parts of the structure never vary ; and, on 

 the other hand, on what small differences in the skeleton, fossil 

 species have often been founded, the variability of the skull 

 and of some other bones in the domesticated rabbit well deserves 

 attention. It must not be supposed that the more important 

 differences immediately to be described strictly characterise 

 any one breed ; all that can be said is, that they are generally 

 present in certain breeds. We should bear in mind that selec- 

 tion has not been applied to fix any character in the skeleton, 

 and that the animals have not had to support themselves under 



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