s, being
elongated in the common goat, hemispherical in the Angora race, and bilobed
and divergent in the goats of Syria and Nubia. According to this same
author, the males of certain breeds have lost their usual offensive odour.
In one of the Indian breeds the males and females have horns of
widely-different shapes;[244] and in some breeds the females are destitute
of horns.[245] The presence of interdigital pits or glands on all four feet
has been thought to characterise the genus Ovis, and their absence to be
characteristic of the genus Capra; but Mr. Hodgson has found that they
exist in the front feet of the majority of Himalayan goats.[246] Mr.
Hodgson measured the intestines in two goats of the Dugu race, and he found
that the proportional length of the great and small intestines differed
considerably. In one of these goats the caecum was thirteen inches, and in
the other no less than thirty-six inches in length!

* * * * *

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CHAPTER IV.

DOMESTIC RABBITS.

DOMESTIC RABBITS DESCENDED FROM THE COMMON WILD RABBIT--ANCIENT
DOMESTICATION--ANCIENT SELECTION--LARGE LOP-EARED RABBITS--VARIOUS
BREEDS--FLUCTUATING CHARACTERS--ORIGIN OF THE HIMALAYAN BREED--CURIOUS
CASE OF INHERITANCE--FERAL RABBITS IN JAMAICA AND THE FALKLAND
ISLANDS--PORTO SANTO FERAL RABBITS--OSTEOLOGICAL
CHARACTERS--SKULL--SKULL OF HALF-LOP RABBITS--VARIATIONS IN THE SKULL
ANALOGOUS TO DIFFERENCES IN DIFFERENT SPECIES OF
HARES--VERTEBRAE--STERNUM--SCAPULA--EFFECTS OF USE AND DISUSE ON THE
PROPORTIONS OF THE LIMBS AND BODY--CAPACITY OF THE SKULL AND REDUCED
SIZE OF THE BRAIN--SUMMARY ON THE MODIFICATIONS OF DOMESTICATED
RABBITS.

All naturalists, with, as far as I know, a single exception, believe that
the several domestic breeds of the rabbit are descended from the common
wild species; I shall therefore describe them more carefully than in the
previous cases. Professor Gervais[247] states "that the true wild rabbit is
smaller than the domestic; its proportions are not absolutely the same; its
tail is smaller; its ears are shorter and more thickly clothed with hair;
and these characters, without speaking of colour, are so many indications
opposed to the opinion which unites these animals under the same specific
denomination." Few naturalists will agree with this author that such slight
differences are sufficient to separate as distinct species the wild and
domestic