128 



DOMESTIC RABBITS 



Chap, IV. 



side of the twelfth dorsal vertebra, and I have seen this in no other 

 specimen. 



Fig. 14. — Dorsal Vertebra?, from sixth to tenth inclusive, of natural size, viewed laterally. 

 A. Wild Rabbit. B. Large, Hare-culourt d, so called Spanish Rabbit. 



Lumbar Yertebrce.- 



A B C 



Fig. 15. — Terminal l>one of 

 Sternum, of natural size. 

 A. \\ ild Rabbit. B. Hare- 

 coloured, Lop-eared T.abbit. 

 0. Hare-coloured Spanish 

 Rabbit. (N.B. The left- 

 hand angle of the upper 

 articular extremity of B 

 was broken, and has been 

 accidentally thus repre- 

 sented.) 



the large lop-eared ri 



-I have stated that in two cases there were 

 eight instead of seven lumbar vertebrae. The 

 third lumbar vertebrae 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 hoemal 

 spine. 



Fdvis. — In four wild specimens this bone 

 was almost absolutely identical in shape ; but 

 in several domesticated breeds shades of 

 differences could be distinguished. In the 

 large lop-eared rabbits, the whole upper part 

 of the ilium is straighter, or less splayed out- 

 wards, than in the wild rabbit; and the 

 tuberosity on the inner lip of the anterior 

 and upper part of the ilium is proportionally 

 more prominent. 



Sternum. — The posterior end of the pos- 

 terior sternal bone in the wild rabbit (fig. 15, 

 a) is thin and slightly enlarged ; in some of 



xbbits (b) it is much more enlarged towards 



I have been informed by the game- 

 keeper, from variously-coloured do- 

 me-tie 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. 



