multiplied there. It now exists, and has long existed, in the warmer
temperate parts of Europe, for fossil remains have been found in several
countries. (4/3. Owen 'British Fossil Mammals' page 212.) The domestic
rabbit readily becomes feral in these same countries, and when variously
coloured kinds are turned out they generally revert to the ordinary grey
colour. (4/4. Bechstein 'Naturgesch. Deutschlands' 1801 b. 1 page 1133. I
have received similar accounts with respect to England and Scotland.) Wild
rabbits, if taken young, can be domesticated, though the process is
generally very troublesome. (4/5. 'Pigeons and Rabbits' by E.S. Delamer
1854 page 133. Sir J. Sebright 'Observations on Instinct' 1836 page 10)
speaks most strongly on the difficulty. But this difficulty is not
invariable, as I have received two accounts of perfect success in taming
and breeding from the wild rabbit. See also Dr. P. Broca in 'Journal de la
Physiologie' tome 2 page 368.) The various domestic races are often
crossed, and are believed to be quite fertile together, and a perfect
gradation can be shown to exist from the largest domestic kinds, having
enormously developed ears, to the common wild kind. The parent-form must
have been a burrowing animal, a habit not common, as far as I can discover,
to any other species in the large genus Lepus. Only one wild species is
known with certainty to exist in Europe; but the rabbit (if it be a true
rabbit) from Mount Sinai, and likewise that from Algeria, present slight
differences; and these forms have been considered by some authors as
specifically distinct. (4/6. Gervais 'Hist. Nat. des Mammiferes' tome 1
page 292.) But such slight differences would aid us little in explaining
the more considerable differences characteristic of the several domestic
races. If the latter are the descendants of two or more closely allied
species, these, with the exception of the common rabbit, have been
exterminated in a wild state; and this is very improbable, seeing with what
pertinacity this animal holds its ground. From these several reasons we may
infer with safety that all the domestic breeds are the descendants of the