Cuniculus. The Rabbet, or Cony. Lepus cuniculus. Lyn fyft. 77. Raii fyn. quad. 205. Meyer's an. i. Tab. 83. Gefner quad. 362. Lepus caudatus, obfcure cinereus. Brion quad. 95. De Buffon Tom. vi. 303. Tab. 50, 51. 22. RABBET. Span. Conejo Port. Coelho IT Dan. Kanine T is well obferved by Pliny, that nature hath fhewed great 'kindness, in caufing those things to be moft prolific, that are the most harmless and the propereft for our food *. This excellent obfervation of his, cannot be better illuftrated PROLIFIC. than in fhewing the great fruitfulness of this animal; as it far exceeds that proof, brought by the ingenious author of the œconomy nature, in fupport of the fame quotation. The inftance he produces is the pigeon; whofe increafe, from one pair, may in four years amount to 14.760 : but rabbets will breed feven times a year, and bring eight young ones each time: on a fuppofition this happens regularly, during four years, their numbers will amount to 1,274,840. By this account, we might juftly apprehend being overstocked *Benigna circa hoc natura, innocua et efculenta animalia facunda generavit. Lib. viii. c, 55. + Vide Swedish Effays, tranflated by Mr. Stilling fleet, Ed. 1ft. p. 75. FUR. with these animals, if they had not a large number of enemies which prevents the too great increase: not only men, but hawks, and beasts of prey, make dreadful havoke among the species. Notwithstanding thefe different enemies, we are told by Pliny, and Strabo, that they once proved fo great a nuifance to the inhabitants of the Balearic islands, that they were obliged to implore the affiftance of a military force from the Romans, in the time of Auguftus, in order to extirpate them *. Their native country is Spain, where they were taken by means of ferrets, as we do at present, which animals were firft introduced there out of Africa +: they love a temperate and a warm climate, and are incapable of bearing great cold, fo that in Sweden ‡ they are obliged to be kept in houses. Our country abounds with them; their furs form a confiderable article in the hat manufactures; and of late, fuch part of the fur as is unfit for that purpose, has been found as good as feathers for stuffing beds and bolsters. Numbers of the skins are annually exported into China. The English counties that are most noted for these animals are Lincolnshire, Norfolk, and Cambridgeshire. Methold, in the last county, is famous for the beft fort for the table: the foil there is fandy, and full of moffes and the Carex grass. Rabbets fwarm in the ifles of Orkney, where their skins form a confiderable article of commerce. Excepting otters, brown rats, common mice, and fhrews, no other quadrupeds are found there. The rabbets of those ifles are in general grey, thofe which inhabit the hills, grow hoary in winter. * Plin. lib. viii. c. 55. Strabo, lib. iii. Formerly Formerly the filver-haired rabbets were in great esteem for lining of cloaths, and their skins fold at three fhillings a piece *; but fince the introduction of the more elegant furs, the price is fallen to fixpence each. The Sunk Island† in the Humber was once famous for a mouse-coloured fpecies, now extirpated by reason of the injury it did to the banks by burrowing. Hartlib's Legacy. + Ph. tr. No. 361. Two XIII. SQUIR- Two cutting teeth in each jaw. Long tail cloathed with long hair. 23. COMMON. Sciurus vulgaris. Raii fyn. quad. '214. NAME. Sciurus rufus, quandoque grifeo ad- De Buffon, Tom. vii. 258. Tab. 32. HE fquirrel derives its name from the form of its tail, oxa a fhade, ça a tail, as ferving this little animal for an umbrella. That part is long enough to cover the whole body, and is clothed with long hairs, difpofed on each fide horizontally, which gives it a great breadth. Thefe ferve a double purpose; when erected, they prove a fecure protection from the injuries of heat or cold; when extended, they are very inftrumental in promoting thofe vaft leaps the fquirrel takes from tree to tree. On the authority of Klein and Linnæus, we may add a third application of the form of the tail: thefe naturalifts tell us, that when the fquirrel is difpofed difpofed to cross a river, a piece of bark is the boat, the tail the fail. This animal is remarkably neat, lively, active, and provident; MANNErs. never leaves its food to chance, but fecures in fome hollow tree a vaft magazine of nuts for winter provifion. In the fummer it feeds on the buds and young fhoots; and is particularly fond of thofe of the fir and pine, and alfo of the young cones. It makes its neft of the moss or dry leaves, between the fork of two branches; and brings four or five young at a time. Squirrels are in heat early in the spring, when it is very diverting to fee the female feigning an escape from the purfuit of two or three males, to obferve the various proofs they give of their agility, which is then exerted in full force. The color of the whole head, body, tail, and legs of this animal, is a bright reddish brown: the belly and breaft white; the ears are very beautifully ornamented with long tufts of hair, of a deeper color than thofe on the body: the eyes are large, black, and lively: the fore teeth, strong, fharp, and well adapted to its food: the legs are short and mufcular: the toes long, and divided to their origin; the nails ftrong and sharp; in fhort, in all refpects fitted for climbing, or clinging to the smallest boughs: on the fore-feet it has on ly four toes, with a claw in the place of the thumb or interior toe : on the hind feet there are five toes. When it eats or dreffes itself, it fits erect, covering the body with its tail, and making ufe of the fore-legs as hands. It is obferved, that the gullet of this animal is very narrow, to prevent it from difgorging its food, in defcending of trees, or in down leaps. DESCRIP. VOL. I. Two |