132 RABBET. Class I. 



military force from the Romans, in the time of 

 Augustus, in order to extirpate them.* Their 

 native country is Spain, where they were taken 

 as we do at present, by means of ferrets, which 

 animals were first introduced there out of 

 Africa r\ they love a temperate and a warm 

 climate, and are incapable of bearing great cold, 

 so that in Swedm% they are obliged to be kept 

 in houses. Our country abounds with them ; 

 Fur. their furs form a considerable article in the hat 

 manufactures, and of late, such part of the fur 

 as is unfit for that purpose, has been found as 

 good as feathers for stuffing beds and bolsters. 

 Numbers of the skins are annually exported to 

 China. The English counties that are most 

 noted for these animals are Lincolnshire, Nor- 

 folk, and Cambridgeshire. Met hold, in the last 

 county, is famous for the best sort for the table; 

 the soil there is sandy, and full of mosses and 

 the carices. Rabbets swarm in the isles of 

 Orkney, where their skins form a considerable 

 article of commerce. Excepting otters, brown 

 rats, common mice, and shrews, no other quad- 

 rupeds are found there. The rabbets of those 

 isles are in general grey: those which inhabit the 

 hills, grow hoary in winter. 



* Plin. lib. viii. c. 55- f Stralo, iii. 144. 



1 Faun- Suec. 26. 



