RABBIT. 
134 
The tame rabbits are larger than the wild ones, 
from their taking more nourishment, and using less 
exercise ; but their flesh is not so good, being more 
insipid and softer. In order to improve it they 
are chiefly fed upon bran, and are stinted in their 
water ; for if indulged in too great plenty of moist 
food, they arc apt, as the feeders express it, to grow 
rotten. The hair or fur is a very useful commodi- 
ty, and is employed in England for several pur- 
poses, as well when the skm is dressed with it on, 
as when it is pulled off. The skins, especially the 
white, are used for lining clothes, and are con- 
sidered as a cheap imitation of ermine. The skin 
of the male is usually preferred, as being the most 
lasting, but it is coarser ; that on the belly in either 
sex, is the best and finest. But the chief use made 
of rabbit’s fur, is in the manufacture of hats ; 
it is always mixed in certain proportions, with the 
fur of the beaver ; and it is said to give the lat- 
ter more strength and consistence. 
The Syrian rabbit, like all other animals bred 
in that country, is remarkable for the length of its 
hair ; it falls along* the sides in wavy wreaths, and 
is, in some places, curled at the end like wool ; it 
is shed once a year, in large masses ; and it 
often happens that the rabbit, dragging a part of 
its robe on the ground, appears as if it had got 
another leg, or a longer tail. There are no rab- 
bits naturally in America ; however, those that 
have been carried from Europe, are found to mul- 
tiply in the West India islands in great abundance. 
In other parts of that continent, they have animals 
that in some measure resemble the rabbits of Eu- 
rope ; and which most European travellers have 
often called hares or rabbits, as they happen to be 
large or small. 
Rabbits, as they cannot easily articulate sounds, 
and are formed into societies that live underground* 
