RABBIT

a title applied variously and contradictorily to a number of small game animals of the Leporidae, uncertainly placed generically and specifically. In some parts of the United States the name is applied also to hares (see Hare). The animals multiply very rapidly and often constitute a serious menace to vineyards, young orchards, and truck-gardens, Their increase to the proportions of a pest in Australia and New Zealand is a matter of common knowledge. The chief American genus is Sylrilagus (Lyon), which embraces the ‘‘wood rabbit,’’ or ‘‘cottontail’’; that of the Old World is Oryctolagus (Lyon). The domestic rabbit has been bred into a great many types -widely differing in both hody and ear size, and in color and style of fur. The most popular commercial breeds range in mature weights from eight to more than twenty pounds, several making very rapid growth —often reaching six or more pounds at five months of age. The wild rabbit of good average development weighs from two to three pounds, or a little more. The flesh of young, plump animals makes good eating, both wild and do me stie a ted, fresh and canned. Those who enjoy a delicate gamy flavor will prefer the dark meat of the wild rabbit; others will find more enjoyment in the mild, white flesh of the domesticated. The domesticated rabbit is best for frying when from two to three months old— then generally from three pounds upward in weight—and for roasting or stewing at any age up to eight or nine months. ‘The dre ed weight is about half of the live. The fat percentage of the flesh (even of plump, domesticated animals) is small compared with that of ‘butcher’s meat,’’ but by other comparisons it stands high in food value, and (in the ease of the plump, voung, domesticated animal at all events) is readily a imilable by the average person. The canned-rabbit industry is centered principally in South Australia and New Zealand. The rabbits are caught at night, dre ed with the skins on, and taken by the cartload to the factories. There the heads are removed—to be afterwards boiled down for jelly—the legs cut off, and the pelts Jaid aside. The bodies are slightly salted to remove the blood, then washed, chopped into pieces of suitable size, and canned in the usual method. Rabbit meat is subject to somewhat curious prejudices. In England and France it is a very popular food, but in this conntry the sale is comparatively small—and, curiously enough, this lack of appreciation is shared by West-Indian negroes, despite their enjoyment of snakes, toads, and centipedes! The rabbit is an especially convenient-sized anima! for raising, handling, and consumption, and it is easily cared for and economically fed. It doesn’t furnish eges, but otherwise it closely parallels the chicken in the advantages it offers to farmers and country residents—-except that the larger varieties resemble the turkey rather than the chicken in the quantity of meat they develop!