7928 



Quadrupeds. 



becomes very valuable, since it is finer than that of the hare. The 

 author points out one curious character in the ears of the leporine. 

 The young of all these breeds have one ear erect, the other hanging 

 down ; this peculiarity disappears with age in animals of the first cross, 

 but is more decided and persistent as hare-blood increases. 



Albino and angora varieties are sometimes produced among lepo- 

 rines as among rabbits, but they are not so frequent ; the albinos have 

 not been allowed to breed, as they are considered inferior animals. 

 The angoras have been permitted to unite, but they do not breed 

 readily ; their litters are small, and the young are not always 

 angoras. 



All leporines, of whatever breed, have the flesh like that of the wild 

 rabbit, that is to say, hardly deeper in colour than that of the domes- 

 ticated rabbit ; and the quadroons themselves, in this respect, are 

 nearer the rabbit than the hare. It is worthy of remark, that the influ- 

 ence of the rabbit is even here predominant. The flesh of the lepo- 

 rines, however, has not the taste of either the wild or tame rabbit; it 

 has a peculiar flavour, which is not unlike, says M. Macquet, that of 

 the wing of a turkey. M. Roux has succeeded in producing leporines 

 with only one-eighth rabbit in them, but only two were produced, and 

 the experiment was not continued. M. Broca, however, expresses 

 his intention to try some of his own experiments in this direction, 

 with the view of ultimately obtaining a pure domesticated hare. 



Upon the whole, continues M. Broca, although M. Roux has not 

 satisfied all the requirements of Physiology, — though he has not 

 entered in a register the particular genealogy of each of his leporines, 

 — though he has not been anxious to perpetuate especially the hybrid 

 race of the first cross, and has preferred, with an exclusively practical 

 purpose, to cross it with that of the second blood, to create the more 

 productive and more lucrative race of the " three-eighths," everything 

 tells us that the cross of the male hare and female rabbit constitutes 

 an example of hybridity fertile inter se (engenerique). Never, in 

 uniting the hybrids of different bloods, either among themselves or 

 with the others, has M. Roux found an instance of sterility. The 

 limits of the fecundity of the first generation of hybrids are not ascer- 

 tained, but it is known that the fertility of the three-eighths has 

 continued for ten generations. 



M. Broca is willing to admit, if desired by the advocates of the 

 permanence of species, that the hybrids of the first generation have 

 not been sufficiently studied ; but, he asks, " What will they gain by 

 the concession ? Will there not always remain, between the two 



