206 



RABBET. 



edition of the Systema Naturae he attempts to 

 distinguish the Rabbet thus : i. cauda abhreoiata^ 

 auriculis denudatis. Hare with abbreviated tail, 

 and naked ears. But, as Mr. Barrington, whose 

 remarks on this subject may be found in the Phi- 

 losophical Transactions^ has well observed^, this 

 latter distinction will be found equally to fail. 



The criterion proposed by Mr. Barrington is 

 the proportional length of the hind legs compared 

 with those of the hare ; for if the hind legs of 

 an European Hare are measured from the upper- 

 most joint to the toe, the number of inches will 

 turn out to be just half the length of the back 

 from the rump to the mouth, the tail not being 

 included. The hind legs of the Rabbet being 

 measured in the same manner, and compared 

 with the back, are not much more than one 

 third." Mr. B. adds, that the fore legs of the 

 Rabbet are also shorter than those of the hare. 

 Mr. Barrington's criterion, as the reader will ob- 

 serve by turning to the specific character, has 

 been adopted by modern naturalists. 



The strange variety, or rather, if such really 

 existed, distinct species, figured in Mr. Pennant's 

 Synopsis, and repeated in his History of Quadru- 

 peds, under the title of the Hooded Rabbet, and 

 taken from a drawing by Edwards, in the British 

 Museum, appears such an outrageous violation of 

 probability as to justify our supposing it, with Dr. 

 Pallas, to be in reality no other than an Angora 

 Rabbet, in the state in which it sometimes ap- 

 pears when casting its fur, which, as Daubentoii 



