122 



DOMESTIC RABBITS. 



Chap. IV. 



Fig. 14.— Dorsal Vertebra?, from sixth to tenth inclusive, of 

 natural size, viewed laterally. A. Wild Rabbit. 

 B. Large, Hare-coloured, so called Spanish Rabbit. 



the neural spine of the tenth is plainly thicker and shorter than those 

 of all the anterior vertebree. In the large lop-eared rabbits the neural 



spines of the tenth, 

 ninth, eighth, and even 

 in a slight degree that 

 of the seventh vertebra, 

 are very much thicker, 

 and of somewhat dif- 

 ferent shape, in compa- 

 rison with those of the 

 wild rabbit. So that 

 this part of the verte- 

 bral column differs con- 

 siderably in appearance 

 from the same part in 

 the wild rabbit, and 

 closely resembles in an 

 interesting manner these 

 same vertebrae in some 

 species of hares. In the 

 Angora, Chinchilla, and 

 Himalayan rabbits, the neural spines of the eighth and ninth vertebras are 

 in a slight degree thicker than in the wild. On the other hand, in one of 

 the feral Porto Santo rabbits, which in most of its characters deviates in an 

 exactly opposite manner to what the large lop-eared rabbits do from the 

 common wild rabbit, the neural spines of the ninth and tenth vertebras 

 were not at all larger than those of the several anterior vertebrae. In this 

 same Porto Santo specimen there was no trace in the ninth vertebra of the 

 anterior lateral processes (see woodcut 14), which are plainly developed in 

 all British wild rabbits, and still more plainly developed in the large lop- 

 eared rabbits. In a half-wild rabbit from Sandon Park, 26 a haemal spine 

 was moderately well developed on the under side of the twelfth dorsal 

 vertebra, and I have seen this in no other specimen. 



Lumbar vertebree.— I have stated that in two cases there were eight 

 instead of seven lumbar vertebrae. The third lumbar vertebra in one 

 skeleton of a wild British rabbit, and in one of the Porto Santo feral rabbits, 

 had a haemal spine ; whilst in four skeletons of large lop-eared rabbits, 

 and in the Himalayan rabbit, this same vertebra had a well- developed 

 haemal spine. 



Pelvis.— In four wild specimens this bone was almost absolutely iden- 

 tical in shape ; but in several domesticated breeds 'shades of differences 



26 These rabbits have run wild for 

 a considerable time in Sandon Park, 

 and in other places in Staffordshire and 

 Shropshire. They originated, as I have 

 been informed by the gamekeeper, from 

 variously-coloured domestic rabbits 

 which had been turned out. They vary 



in colour ; but many are symmetrically 

 coloured, being white with a streak 

 along the spine, and with the ears and 

 certain marks about the head of a 

 blackish-grey tint. They have rather 

 longer bodies than common rabbits. 



