THE GUN AT HOME AND ABROAD 
between the two. The additional facts now adduced by Mr Millais are 
of much interest, and confirm the opinion so long ago expressed in 
these columns.” 
It is only natural that in parts of the country where the ranges of the 
two species overlap, they would come together and occasionally inter- 
breed, but as the hybrids naturally resemble one or other of the parents, 
they must often pass unrecognized, and on this account are perhaps of 
more frequent occurrence than is generally supposed. 
The Swiss naturalist Victor Fatio found that the brown hares which live 
in Alpine valleys often come across the blue hares of higher altitudes and 
inter -breed with them. He had seen several such hybrids obtained in 
the Bernese Oberland and the Valais. 
The question whether hares and rabbits ever inter -breed is one that is 
sometimes asked, and apparently many persons believe in its possibility. 
They point to the so-called “ Belgian hare ” or ” Leporine,” which they 
assert is a well-known hybrid between these two species. That the animal 
is well known there is no doubt; it appears at every rabbit and poultry 
show of importance, and special prizes are offered for the most typical 
specimens. Its appearance, too, is that of a hybrid hare; but the resem- 
blance is merely superficial. Sixty odd years ago a breed of rabbits origi- 
nated in Belgium which somewhat distantly resembled the ordinary 
brown hare, and some enterprising breeder pretended that he had suc- 
ceeded in crossing the hare with a rabbit, and that these were the progeny. 
Since this introduction the so-called “Leporines” have been bred re- 
peatedly with a twofold object — ^to increase size and ostensibly to develop 
a rabbit of the form, colour, and fur of the wild hare. It is unfortunate that 
the public have been encouraged to believe in the existence of a hybrid 
hare and rabbit by the views expressed by such authoritative writers as 
George Henry Lewes, and the late John Simpson at one time consulting 
forester to the Earl of Wharncliffe. 
G. H. Lewes, referring to this subject in his “Studies in Animal Life,” 
remarks (p. 162): 
“ Between species so distinct as these a new hybrid race has been 
reared by M. Roux, of Angouleme, who every year sends to market 
upwards of a thousand of his ‘Leporides,’ as he calls them. His object 
was primarily commercial, not scientific. His experiments, extending 
from 1847 to the present time (1862),* have not only been of great 
* An account of his experiments will be found in The Zoologist for 1862. 
190 
