Again, the large lop-eared
rabbits have bodies of nearly the same weight and size as the
common hare, but their heads are longer; consequently, if the
lop-eared rabbits had been wild, it might have been expected that
their skulls would have had nearly the same capacity as that of the
skull of the hare. But this is far from being the case; for the
average capacity of the two hare-skulls (Nos. 23, 24) is so much
larger than the average capacity of the seven lop-eared skulls,
that the latter would have to be increased 21 per cent to come up
to the standard of the hare.[28]
I have previously remarked that, if we had possessed many domestic
rabbits of the same average size with the wild rabbit, it would have
been easy to compare the capacity of their skulls. Now the Himalayan,
Moscow, and Angora rabbits (Nos. 11, 12, 13 of Table 3) are only a
little larger in body and have skulls only a little longer, than the
wild animal, and we see that the actual capacity of their skulls is
less than in the wild animal, and considerably less by calculation
(column 7), according to the difference in the length of their skulls.
The narrowness of the brain-case in these three rabbits could be
plainly seen and proved by external measurement. The Chinchilla rabbit
(No. 14) is a considerably larger animal than the wild rabbit, yet the
capacity of its skull only slightly exceeds that of the wild rabbit.
The Angora rabbit, No. 13, offers the most remarkable case; this animal
in its pure white colour and length of silky fur bears the stamp of
long domesticity. It has a considerably longer head and body than the
wild rabbit, but the actual capacity of its skull is less than that of
even the little wild Porto Santo rabbits. By the standard of the length
of skull the capacity (see column 7) is only half of what it ought to
have been! I kept this individual animal alive, and it was not
unhealthy nor idiotic. This case of the Angora rabbit so much surprised
me, that I repeated all the measurements and found them correct. I have
also compared the capacity of the skull of the Angora with that of the
wild rabbit by other standards, namely, by the length and weight of the
body, and by the weight of the limb-bones; but by all these standards
the brain appears to be much too small, though in a less degree when
the standard of the limb-bones was used; and this latter circumstance
may probably be accounted for by the limbs of this anciently
domesticated breed having become much reduced in weight, from its
long-continued inactive life. Hence I infer that in the Angora breed,
which is said to differ from other breeds in being quieter and more
social, the capacity of the skull has really undergone a remarkable
amount of reduction.
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