554 TRANSLATIONS FROM CONTINENTAL JOURNALS. 
female hare kills her young in a state of domesticity. For 
these mighty reasons the preference was given to the rabbit 
as the dam of the leporide. The rearing of the leveret is 
somewhat difficult; he must be caught when he is twenty or 
thirty days old, or as soon as he is able to do without its 
mother, and he is to be kept with young rabbits of the same 
age, carefully separated from all others ; in this manner they 
grow up together without much trouble; the young hare is 
never so familiar as the rabbits, but becomes used to the 
confinement as the rabbits become used to his presence. At 
puberty copulation is to be promoted by leaving only one or 
tw r o females with the male hare, to be afterwards replaced by 
others who have been reared with him. Thus managed, 
things go on wonderfully; the crossing is effected, and the 
fecundity assured. The litters are not quite so numerous 
when the rabbit has been matched with the hare; those 
which, when matched with the rabbit, would have had from 
eight to twelve, have only from five to eight with the hare. 
Experience shows that the hare is more prolific with the 
rabbit than with his own mate, and that the rabbit is less 
prolific than with the male of her own species. These 
observations are proof that both sexes concur in the work of 
fecundation. To guide and direct the crossings as well as 
to strengthen the male, he should be kept in a separate 
hutch; the females are then quieter, and conception more 
certain. The hare is, at the same time, timid and chaste; 
he satisfies the females that are with him only during the 
night, w r hen all is quiet about him. It is advisable to cover 
the bars of the hutch with a cloth; the females should be 
removed in the morning. The leporides of the first cross, 
or half-blood, resemble the rabbit, with which they might be 
easily confounded. This, evidently, was not the object ot 
M. Roux, as there would have been no advantage gained by 
it. To bring them nearer to the hare he put the females of 
the first cross to the hare again, by this means he obtained 
an individual of greater size and beauty than either the hare 
or the rabbit. In this the predominance of the rabbit had 
disappeared; although these crosses are three parts hare, 
they appear only half-bred, as they seem to have as much 
of the rabbit as the hare in their general appearance. In 
breeding from these leporides they produced individuals like 
themselves, but their litters were few (from two to five only) ; 
this promises no very abundant stock, and would not give 
the anticipated results. M. Roux thought of introducing 
more of the blood of the rabbit into the veins of this new 
family, but this would have been retrograding too soon 
