THE DOMESTIC RABBIT is larger than the wild species, owing to its taking more nourishment and less exercise (our example, however, is drawn disproportionately large). Like pigeons, they have their regular fanciers, and are bred of various colours--grey, reddish brown, black more or less mixed with white, or perfectly white. The ears are considered to constitute a principal feature of their beauty, and the animal is most valued when both ears hang down by the side of the head; the animal is then called a double lop; when only one ear drops, it is called a single or horn lop, and when both stretch out horizontally, an oar-lop. [Illustration: THE SQUIRREL. (_Sciurus vulgaris._)] ELEGANCE of shape, spiritedness, and agility to leap from bough to bough in the forest, are the principal characteristics of this pretty animal. The Squirrel is of a deep reddish brown colour, his breast and belly white. He is lively, sagacious, docile, and nimble: he lives upon nuts, and has been seen so tame as to dive into the pocket of his mistress, and search after an almond or a lump of sugar. In the woods he leaps from tree to tree with surprising agility, living a most frolicsome life, surrounded with abundance, and having but few enemies. His time, however, is not entirely devoted to idle enjoyment, for in the luxuriant season of autumn he gathers provisions for the approaching winter, as if conscious that the forest would then be stripped of its fruits and foliage. His tail serves him as a parasol to defend him from the rays of the sun, as a parachute to secure him from dangerous falls when leaping from tree to tree, and, some say, as a sail in crossing the water, which he sometimes does in Lapland on a bit of ice or bark inverted in the manner of a boat. The American Flying Squirrel (_Pteromys volucella_) has a large membrane proceeding from the fore feet to the hind legs, which answers the same purpose as the Squirrel’s tail, and enables him to give surprising leaps that almost resemble flying. In the act of leaping, the loose skin is stretched out by the feet, whereby the surface of the body is augmented, its fall is retarded, and it appears to sail or fly from one place to another. Where numbers of them are seen at a time leaping, they appear like leaves blown off by the wind. There are many other kinds of Squirrels in various parts of the world; most of the Flying Squirrels are found in the eastern islands. [Illustration: THE DORMOUSE, OR SLEEPER. (_Myoxus avellanarius._)]