rviving."[266] When rabbits run wild in foreign countries, under
different conditions of life, they by no means always revert to their
aboriginal colour. In Jamaica the feral rabbits are described as
"slate-coloured, deeply tinted with sprinklings of white on the neck, on
the shoulders, and on the back; softening off to blue-white under the
breast and belly."[267] But in this tropical island the conditions were not
favourable to their increase, and they never spread widely; and, as I hear
from Mr. R. Hill, owing to a great fire which occurred in the woods, they
have now become extinct. Rabbits during many years have run wild in the
Falkland Islands; they are abundant in certain parts, but do not spread
extensively. Most of them are of the common grey colour; a few, as I am
informed by Admiral Sulivan, are hare-coloured, and many are black, often
with nearly symmetrical white marks on their faces. Hence, M. Lesson
described the black variety as a distinct species, under the name of _Lepus
magellanicus_, but this, as I have elsewhere shown, is an error.[268]
Within recent times the sealers have stocked some of the small outlying
islets in the Falkland group with rabbits; and on Pebble Islet, as I hear
from Admiral Sulivan, a large proportion are hare-coloured, whereas on
Rabbit Islet a large proportion are of a bluish colour which is not
elsewhere seen. How the rabbits were coloured which were turned out on
these islets is not known.

The rabbits which have become feral on the island of Porto Santo, near
Madeira, deserve a fuller account. In 1418 or 1419, J. Gonzales Zarco[269]
happened to have a female rabbit on board which had produced young during
the voyage, and he turned them all out on the island. These animals soon
increased so {113} rapidly, that they became a nuisance, and actually
caused the abandonment of the settlement. Thirty-seven years subsequently,
Cada Mosto describes them as innumerable; nor is this surprising, as the
island was not inhabited by any beast of prey or by any terrestrial mammal.
We do not know the character of the mother-rabbit; but we have every reason
to believe that it was the common domesticated kind. The Spanish peninsula,
whence Zarco sailed, is known to have abounded with the common wild species
at the most remote historical period. As these rabbits were taken on board
for food, it is improbable that they should have been of any peculiar
breed. That the breed was well domesticated is s