355 
“ . . . The hare-rabbit (Lepus Darwinii), the bastard of our 
indigenous hare and rabbit . . . many generations of which 
have been bred in France, since 1850, for gastronomic purposes. 
I myself possess such hybrids, the products of pure in-breeding,— 
that is, both parents of which are themselves hybrids by a hare- 
father and a rabbit-mother. I possess them through the kindness of 
Professor Conrad, who has repeatedly made these experiments in 
breeding on his estate. The half-blood hybrid thus bred, which I 
name in honour of Darwin, appears to propagate itself through many 
generations by pure in-breeding, just as well as any genuine species. 
Although, on the whole, it is more like its mother (rabbit), still in 
the formation of the ears and of the hind legs it possesses distinct 
qualities of its father (hare). Its flesh has an excellent taste, rather 
resembling that of a hare, though the colour is more like that of a 
rabbit.”—(Haeckel. The History of Creation, vol. i., 3rd edition, 
pp. 147-8.) 
“M. Roux, of Angouleme, finds that he can cross hares and 
rabbits to any extent, and has thus, by breeding Leporides, estab 
lished a new and lucrative department in agriculture. For a full 
account of these experiments, the reader may consult Brown 
Sequard’s Journal de la Physiologic, vol. ii., pp. 374-383.”— 
(1Chambers 1 Encyclopaedia. First editiofi. Art: Hybrids.) 
After such emphatic evidence, it is startling to find 
that these apparently well authenticated facts have been 
called in question by 7 MM. Blanchard and Flourens. 
“More than a century ago, an Italian experimentalist, Amoretti, 
announced the reproduction of offspring from the male rabbit and 
the female hare. One remained very incredulous. Numerous 
attempts to unite the male rabbit and the female hare, and the male 
hare and the female rabbit, made by persons very familiar with the 
habits of these animals, had not succeeded. Some years ago, 
however, it was shown that the union of the male hare and of the 
female rabbit was not only possible, but fertile. The product, to 
which the name of Leporides has been given, and which presented a 
mixture of the characteristics of father and mother, with some pre 
dominance of those of the rabbit, would preserve the power of repro 
duction. In the second generation, the characteristic marks of the 
hare would be already much effaced ; in the third generation, one 
would look in vain for a trace of them—the Leporides would no longer 
be distinguishable from ordinary rabbits. The zoologists have had 
little opportunity of studying the Leporides. It is therefore with 
caution that we cite the facts recorded by observers. In every state 
ment of the case these facts are of considerable importance in the