Quadrupeds. 



7927 



rabbit — never united by daylight, or even at night, if it saw any one 

 near. M. Roux was therefore obliged to go behind the cage, and 

 await with patience, and in silence, the particular moment. He was 

 thus enabled to ascertain that — unlike the buck rabbit, or even the 

 hare in a wild state — the tamed hare was very gentle in his advances 

 to his strange partner. 



The leporines of the first generation resemble the rabbit much more 

 than the hare, and, altogether, might be easily confounded with rabbits. 

 No advantage was gained by propagating this race : they bred inter 

 se, and also with the rabbit; and, in the latter case, the produce ap- 

 peared almost identical with the pure species. M. Roux believed this 

 return to the rabbit was without any practical utility. It was, how- 

 ever, otherwise with a return to the hare. The leporines, the issue of 

 the hare and a female of the first cross, are finer, stronger and larger 

 than the animals of the pure species. These new hybrids, although 

 three-quarters hare and one-quarter rabbit, appear directly inter- 

 mediate between the two species, so that it may be said, other things 

 being equal, the rabbit impresses its characters on the leporines more 

 strongly than the hare. M. Broca calls these hybrids " quadroons" 

 (qtiarterons), and says they are fertile inter se, but not very prolific 

 — in this respect approaching the hare. Their litters consist only of 

 from two to five young, and, to obtain a more productive race, 

 M. Roux determined to recross them with the first generation 

 of hybrids. This union results in a breed five-eighths hare and three- 

 eighths rabbit, and is the one to which M. Roux gives his principal 

 attention. The " three-eighths," as M. Broca designates this race, 

 are quite as fine as the quadroons, and much more prolific. Their 

 litters contain from five to eight young, which are reared without any 

 difficulty, and are as hardy as the pure rabbit. They grow rapidly, 

 and are capable of reproducing when four months old. Gestation 

 lasts thirty days, and the young are suckled about three weeks. The 

 female again receives the male seventeen days after littering. She 

 may thus without difficulty bear six times in the year. This breed of 

 leporines costs the least to bring up, and produces the most flesh for a 

 given quantity of food ; it consequently makes the best return. 



M. Broca takes the weight of the domesticated rabbit and that of the 

 hare reared in confinement as being each about 6 lbs. ; the " three- 

 eighths " leporine, he says, when a year old, or sooner, weighs from 

 8 fbs. to 1 tbs., many reach 12 lbs. or 14 lbs., and one has attained even 

 16 lbs. Leporines, at four months, are worth two francs each — double 

 the price of the domesticated rabbit ; and as they grow older the fur 



