11G DOMESTIC RABBITS. Chap. IV. 



uniform habits of life. We cannot account for most of the 

 differences in the- skeleton ; but we shall see that the increased 

 size of the body, due to careful nurture and continued selection, 

 has affected the head in a particular manner. Even the elongation 

 and lopping of the ears have influenced in a small degree the form 

 of the whole skull. The want of exercise has apparently modified 

 the proportional length of the limbs in comparison with the body. 



As a standard of comparison, I prepared skeletons of two wild rabbits 

 from Kent, one from the Shetland Islands, and one from Antrim in Ireland. 

 As all the bones in these four specimens from such distant localities 

 closely resembled each other, presenting scarcely any appreciable differ- 

 ence, it may be concluded that the bones of the wild rabbit are generally 

 uniform in character. 



Skull— I have carefully examined skulls of ten large lop-eared fancy 

 rabbits, and of five common domestic rabbits, which latter differ from the 

 lop-eared only in not having such large bodies or ears, yet both larger 

 than in the wild rabbit. First for the ten lop-eared rabbits : in all these 

 the skull is remarkably elongated in comparison with its breadth. In 

 a wild rabbit the length was 315 inches, in a large fancy rabbit 4'30; 

 whilst the breadth of the cranium enclosing the brain was in both almost 

 exactly the same. Even by taking as the standard of comparison the 

 widest part of the zygomatic arch, the skulls of the lop-eared are propor- 

 tionally to their breadth three-quarters of an inch too long. The depth of 

 the head has increased almost in the same proportion with the length; 

 it is the breadth alone which has not increased. The parietal and occipital 

 bones enclosing the brain are less arched, both in a longitudinal and 

 transverse line, than in the wild rabbit, so that the shape of the cranium 

 is somewhat different. The surface is rougher, less cleanly sculptured, 

 and the lines of sutures are more prominent. 



Although the skulls of the large lop-eared rabbits in comparison with 

 those of the wild rabbit are much elongated relatively to their breadth, yet, 

 relatively to the size of body, they are far from elongated. The lop-eared 

 rabbits which I examined were, though not fat, more than twice as heavy 

 as the wild specimens ; but the skull was very far from being twice as long. 

 Even if we take the fairer standard of the length of body, from the nose to 

 the anus, the skull is not on an average as long as it ought to be by a third 

 of an inch. In the small feral P. Santo rabbit, on the other hand, the head 

 relatively to the length of body is about a quarter of an inch too long. 



This elongation of the skull relatively to its breadth, I find a universal 

 character, not only with the large lop-eared rabbits, but in all the artificial 

 breeds ; as is well seen in the skull of the Angora. I was at first much 

 surprised at the fact, and could not imagine why domestication should 

 produce this uniform result; but the explanation seems to lie in the 

 circumstance that during a number of generations the artificial races 

 have been closely confined, and have had little occasion to exert either 

 their senses, or intellect, or voluntary muscles ; consequently the brain, as 



