120 



DOMESTIC RABBITS. 



Chap. IV 



some of the largest skulls of the lop-eared this line was plainly bowed 

 inwards. In one specimen there was an additional molar tooth on each 

 side of the upper jaw, between the molars and premolars ; but these two 

 teeth did not correspond in size ; and as no rodent has seven molars this 

 is merely a monstrosity, though a curious one. 



The five other skulls of common domestic rabbits, some of which 

 approach in size the above-described largest skulls, whilst the others 

 exceed but little those of the wild rabbit, are only worth notice as presenting 

 a perfect gradation in all the above-specified differences between the skulls 

 of the largest lop-eared and wild rabbits. In all, however, the supra-orbital 

 plates are rather larger, and in all the auditory meatus is larger, in con- 

 formity with the increased size of the external ears, than in the wild rabbit. 

 The lower notch in the occipital foramen in some was not so deep as in the 

 wild, but in all five skulls the upper notch was well developed. 



The skull of the Angora rabbit, like the latter five skulls, is intermediate 

 in general proportions, and in most other characters, between those of the 

 largest lop-eared and wild rabbits. It presents only one singular character : 

 though considerably longer than the skull of the wild, the breadth measured 

 within the posterior supra-orbital fissures is nearly a third less than in the 

 wild. The skulls of the silver-grey, and chinchilla and Himalayan rabbits 

 are more elongated than in the wild, with broader supra-orbital plates 

 but differ little in any other respect, excepting that the upper and lower 

 notches of the occipital foramen are not so deep or so well developed. The 

 skull of the Moscow rabbit scarcely differs in any respect from that of the 

 wild rabbit. In the Porto Santo feral rabbits the supra-orbital plates are 

 generally narrower and more pointed than in our wild rabbits. 



As some of the largest lop-eared rabbits of which I prepared skeletons 

 were coloured almost like hares, and as these latter animals and rabbits 

 have, as it is affirmed, been recently crossed in France, it might be thought 

 that some of the above-described characters had been derived from a cross 

 at a remote period with the hare. Consequently I examined skulls of the 

 hare, but no light could thus be thrown on the peculiarities of the skulls 

 of the larger rabbits. It is, however, an interesting fact, as illustrating 

 the law that varieties of one species often assume the characters of other 

 species of the same genus, that I found, on comparing the skulls of ten 

 species of hares in the British Museum, that they differed from each other 

 chiefly in the very same points in which domestic rabbits vary,— namely, in 

 general proportions, in the form and size of the subra-orbital plates, in 

 the form of the free end of the malar bone, and in the line of suture 

 separating the occipital and frontal bones. Moreover two eminently variable 

 characters in the domestic rabbit, namely, the outline of the occipital 

 foramen and the shape of the "raised platform" of the occiput, were 

 likewise variable in two instances in the same species of hare. 



Vtrtebrce.— The number is uniform in all the skeletons which I have 

 examined, with two exceptions, namely, in one of the small feral Porto Santo 

 rabbits and in one of the largest lop-eared kinds; both of these had as 

 usual seven cervical, twelve dorsal with ribs, but, instead of seven lumbar, 

 both had eight lumbar vertebras. This is remarkable, as Gervais gives 



