In the wild rabbit (figure 13, A a) this vertebra, viewed on the inferior
surface, has a transverse process, which is directed obliquely backwards,
and consists of a single pointed bar; in the fourth vertebra this process
is slightly forked in the middle. In the large lop-eared rabbits this
process (B a) is forked in the third vertebra, as in the fourth of the wild
rabbit. But the third cervical vertebrae of the wild and lop-eared (A b, B
b) rabbits differ more conspicuously when their anterior articular surfaces
are compared; for the extremities of the antero-dorsal processes in the
wild rabbit are simply rounded, whilst in the lop-eared they are trifid,
with a deep central pit. The canal for the spinal marrow in the lop-eared
(B b) is more elongated in a transverse direction than in the wild rabbit;
and the passages for the arteries are of a slightly different shape. These
several differences in this vertebra seem to me well deserving attention.
FIRST DORSAL VERTEBRA.
Its neural spine varies in length in the wild rabbit; being sometimes very
short, but generally more than half as long as that of the second dorsal;
but I have seen it in two large lop-eared rabbits three-fourths of the
length of that of the second dorsal vertebra.
(FIGURE 14. DORSAL VERTEBRAE, from sixth to tenth inclusive, of natural
size, viewed laterally. A. Wild Rabbit. B. Large, Hare-coloured, so called
Spanish Rabbit.)
NINTH AND TENTH DORSAL VERTEBRAE.
In the wild rabbit the neural spine of the ninth vertebra is just
perceptibly thicker than that of the eighth; and the neural spine of the
tenth is plainly thicker and shorter than those of all the anterior
vertebrae. In the large lop-eared rabbits the neural spines of the tenth,
ninth, and eighth vertebrae, and even in a slight degree that of the
seventh, are very much thicker, and of somewhat different shape, in
comparison with those of the wild rabbit. So that this part of the
vertebral column differs considerably in appearance from the same part in
the wild rabbit, and closely resembles in an interesting manner these same
vertebrae in some species of hares. In the Angora, Chinchilla, and
Himalayan rabbits, the neural spines of the eighth and ninth vertebrae are
in a slight degree thicker than in the wild. On the other hand, in one of
the feral Porto Santo rabbits, which in most of its characters deviates
from the common wild rabbit, in a direction exactly opposite to that
assumed by the large lop-eared rabbits, the neural spines of the ninth and
tenth vertebrae were not at all larger than those of the several anterior
vertebra. In this same Porto Santo specimen there was no trace in the ninth
vertebra of the anterior lateral processes (see figure 14), which are
plainly developed in all British wild rabbits, and still more plainly
developed in the large lop-eared rabbits. In a half-wild rabbit from Sandon
Park (4/26. These rabbits have run wild for a considerable time in Sandon
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