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Show DOMESTIC lUBBITS. CHAP. IV. 112 cJ-ed with both si.l ver-gr.e ys and common warren must not be st.o '- . .11 be nono but common . "· few years thc1e Wl . rabbits; oth rw1so m a . "ld in foreign countncs, . . "20 vVheu rabbits run Wl -t greys smv1vmg. . . . . ~ the b no means al 'vvays rcvm under different conditiOns of life, y . y the feral rabbits are . . 1 lour In J amawa . f' to their abongma co . 1 t" ted with sprinklmgs o described as " slate-coloured, deep y Jdn the back . softening th houlders an on ' . white on the neck, on ° s ' d belly" 21 But in tlns h.t dor tho breast an · . . off to blu. e-w d1 t0h un ond1.t 1. 0ns we1.c no t favourable to thmr m- 1 , tropical 1slan e c d 'd 1 . and as I hoar from Mr. "· h or sproa w1 e Y ' ' crease, and t ey nov .fi. 1 . ·h occurred in the woods, they have Hill, owing to a ~rcat ~~:~~~~during many years have run wild now become cxtwct. h bundant in certain parts, but iu the Falkland Islan~s ; t e~:s~ :f thorn are of the common do not spr.cad extensiveily. . £ ·med by Admiral Sulivan, arc l . few as am m or grey co ]o ur ' a ' bl 1 often with nearly symme- d d many are ac r, . d ha.r e-co ho"ut re , an·k s on thei.r f:a ces,. Hence ' M. Lesson dcscnbe tncal w 1 e ~ar . d. t' t species under the name of Lepus the blacl~ vanety as. a IS ~n~ave els~where shown, is an error.22 magellamcus, bu~ this, as 1 . h ve stocked some of the small Wit~n re~ent ti:e~h~eFs:l~\~~:d ~roup with rabbits; and _on o)u tlyblm gI 1I stl ets I hear f rom Ad mi.r al Sulivan ' a large prop.o rtiOn 1 eb c s e 'as . on Rabbit I let a large proportiOn are are hare-coloured, wheieas h How the rabbits . 1 h · ·h is not elsew ere soon. of a blmsh co our_w w . out on these islets is not known. were coloured winch were tumed . 1 d f Porto The rabbits which have become feral on the IS a~ ~418 or M d . ·a deserve a fuller account. n S14anlt9o,JneGa:nza~esei~~rco ~happened to have a female rabbit ond b ·d' w·h ich h"a d produced young durm· g t h e voyage, an. d he turne thoeami all out on t h e I.S 1 a n d . rl'hese animals soon mcreased so 20 Delamar on' Pigeons and Rabbits,' p. 114 ~~ G· osse's • Sojourn in Jama1.c a, '1851 • 441 as described by an excellent ~bscrvdr, Mr. R. Hill. '!'his is_ tho only known case iu which rabb1ts have become feral in a hot cow1try. They cn,n be kept, however, at Loanda (see Livingstone's 'Travels,' p. 407). In pn,rts of India, as I am informed by Mr. Blyth, they breed well. 22 Darwin's' Jom11al of Researches,' P· 103; and ' Zoology of the Voyage of tho Dettglo: Mammalia,' P· 92. , 23 Kerr's • Collection of Voyages, vol. ii. p. 177 ; p. 205 for Oada Mos~. Ac_cord~ iug to a work publishe~ m Llsbo , . 1717 entitled ' Ililltona Insulano, lwnr itten 'b y a Jcstu.t , tho rab b"1 t s we re turned out in H20. Some authort~ b?liovo that the island was discovered m 1413. CHAP. 1 v. FERAL HAlllliTS. 113 rapidly, that they beeamc a nuisance, and actually cam;ed the abandonment of the settlement. Thirty-seven years subsequently, Carla Mosto describes them as innumerable; nor is this snrpri ing, a · the island was not inhabited by any bca t of prey or by any terrestrial mammal. vVc do not know tl1c character of the mother-rabbit; but we l1ave every reason to believe that it was the common domesticated kind. The Spanish peninsula, whcneo Zarco sailed, is known to have abounded with the common wild species at tho most remote historical pc6oc1. As these ra1uhs wore taken on board for food, it is improbable that they should have been of any peculiar brood. That tho breed was well domesticated is shown by tho doc having littered during the voyage. Mr. vVollaston, at my request, brought home two of those feral rabbits in spirits of wino; and, sub:equcutly, Mr. W. Haywood sent to me three more specimens in briue, and two alive. r.rhese seven specimens, though caught at different periods, closely resembled each other. l'hey wore full grown, as shown by . the state of their bono . Although the conditions of lifo in l)orto Santo are evidently highly favourable to rabbits, as proved by their extraordinarily rapid increase, yet they differ conspicuously in then· small si%o fi·om the wild English rabbit. Four English rabbits, measured from the incisors to tho anus, varied between 17 and 17 i inches in length; whilst two of the Porto Santo rabbits were only 14~ and 15 inches in length. But the decrease in size is best shown by weight; four wild English rabbits averaged 3lb. 5 oz., whilst one of the Porto Santo raubits, which had lived for four years in the Zoological Gardens, but had become thin, weighed only 1lb. ~ oz. A fairer test is afforded by the comparison of the well-cleaned limb-bones of a P. Santo rabbit killed on the island with the same bones of a wild Eng1i h rabbit of average size, and they differed in the proportion of rather less than five to nine. So that the Porto Santo rabbits have decreased ncar]y three inches in length, and almost l1alf in weight of body.21 The head has not decreased in length pro- 24 Somcilling of tho snmo kind bns occurred on ih island of Lipari, where, acconliog to Bpallanzaui ('Voyage d:.tus los deux Sicilos,' quoted by Goclron sut· l'Espccc, p. 364), a countryman turned VOL. I. out wmo rabbits wldch multiplied prodigiously, but, says Spallanzani, "lcs lapins do l'ilo do Lipari sont plus petit~; IJ.llO Ct;UX qu'on CICvo Cit domcsticiic.' ' I |