There are many breeds which transmit their characters more or less truly. Every one has seen the enormous lop-eared rabbits exhibited at our shows; various allied sub-breeds are reared on the Continent, such as the so-called Andalusian, which is said to have a large head with a round forehead, and to attain a greater size than any other kind; another large Paris breed is named the Rouennais, and has a square head; the so-called Patagonian rabbit has remarkably short ears and a large round head. Although I have not seen all these breeds, I feel some doubt about there being any marked difference in the {106} shape of their skulls.[254] English lop-eared rabbits often weigh 8 lbs. or 10 lbs., and one has been exhibited weighing 18 lbs.; whereas a full-sized wild rabbit weighs only about 3¼ lbs. The head or skull in all the large lop-eared rabbits examined by me is much longer relatively to its breadth than in the wild rabbit. Many of them have loose transverse folds of skin or dewlaps beneath the throat, which can be pulled out so as to reach nearly to the ends of the jaws. Their ears are prodigiously developed, and hang down on each side of their faces. A rabbit has been exhibited with its two ears, measured from the tip of one to the tip of the other, 22 inches in length, and each ear was 5-3/8 inches in breadth. In a common wild rabbit I found that the length of the two ears, from tip to tip, was 7-5/8 inches, and the breadth only 1-7/8 inch. The great weight of the body in the larger rabbits, and the immense development of their ears, are the qualities which win prizes, and have been carefully selected.