[6 J 



The third and laft is, that the flefh of the Rab- 

 bit is more white when dreffed ; which diftinction 

 is always to be found between the European Hare 

 and Rabbit, but it does not often happen that one 

 can drefs the flefh of an animal which comes from 

 another part of the globe ; it is therefore a crite- 

 rion we can feldom have recourfe to. 



Linnaeus, thus defcribes the Rabbit in his Fauna 

 £uecica. (Art. Lepus). 



Lepus Cani cuius t C2ioAz abbreviata, AnriculisNudatis. 



Lepus cauda breviffima> puptllis rubris. 



With regard to the fir ft circumftance of the Cauda 

 abbreviata, he equally applies it to the Hare in his 

 Syftema Naturae, publifhed in 1766, and drops the 

 Cauda brevifllma of the Fauna Suecica; where in 

 propriety the Rabbit ihould not have found a place, 

 as it is not indigenous in Sweden, the climate be- 

 ing too cold for it. 



Linnseus therefore could only have defcribed from 

 a tame Rabbit, which I fuppofe had balder Ears by 

 fome accident than common, as his next criterion 

 is Auricidis Nudatis. 



I have examined lately a great number of Rab- 

 bits, and do not find that their ears are balder than 

 thofe of a Hare : this fecond circumftance therefore 

 eftablifhes no fpecific difference. 



From the third and laft particular which this great 

 Naturalift relies upon, I am alfo convinced that the 

 fpecimen before him was not only a tame Rabbit, 

 but that its fur was either white or carroty, becaufe 

 Rabbits of thefc colours only have red pupils [V]. 



[<r] I have examined a great number of Rabbits thus coloured, 

 V.'hich commonly have red pupils, though I have feen fome 



Ifin4 



