The external characters of the rabbit.—The outside of the rabbit’s body is almost entirely covered with fur. This consists of two kinds of hair—coarse and fine. The coarser hairs are fewer in number and longer than the fine ones, which they protect from wet. The fine hairs are extremely closely-set, and stand straight out from the skin. In a seal-skin coat only the short hairs of the fur are to be found; the longer hairs have been removed by the dressing process. The great warmth of furs is due to the air which is entangled between the fine, close hairs. It is generally the case that fur-bearing animals are exposed to either mud or wet by their method of life; in spite of this fact, while the hair of a dog soon becomes wetted by rain, and the [Pg 217] wool of a sheep retains a great deal of dirt, furred animals are noted for keeping their coats clean and dry. The longest hairs of the rabbit are the stiff whiskers which stand out from the upper lip, the cheeks, and above the eyes. They are extremely sensitive to touch, and are of great assistance to the animal in finding its way through the dark burrows. The colour of the wild rabbit is greyish brown, except on the belly and under the tail, where it is white. This colour harmonises well with the surroundings, and renders the animal much less noticeable. Wild rabbits are exposed to so many enemies, that individuals which happen to be born with conspicuously coloured fur have generally but a poor chance of surviving and leaving offspring to inherit their disadvantages. There is thus in each generation a natural selection of the animals which are best protected, by their colour, from observation. Among tame rabbits, on the other hand, protective colouration is of very little importance, and one variation of colour is as likely as another to be transmitted by heredity to the next generation. The regions of the body.—For convenience and precision in describing animals it is customary to use the words anterior and posterior to indicate the fore, or head, end, and the hind, or tail, end respectively. The belly-surface is said to be ventral, and the back dorsal. The body of a rabbit obviously consists of head, trunk, a short tail, and four limbs. The general arrangement of the bony framework, or skeleton, (Fig. 161) which supports the softer parts may be felt through the skin. The skeleton consists of (1) the skull; (2) the spine or vertebral column (generally spoken of as the backbone), placed dorsally, and reaching from the anterior end of the neck into the tail; (3) the ventral sternum or breast-bone, which is connected [Pg 218] with the vertebral column by means of curved ribs; (4) the bones of the two pairs of limbs, with the shoulder-and hip-bones to which they are attached. The bones will be studied in more detail in the next chapter.