In a commercial view rabbits are animals of much greater importance than hares; because, from their habit of living in greater numbers together, they can be better attended to and managed; and also because they multiply much more rapidly than hares. Their fecundity, indeed, is truly astonishing. They breed several times in the year, and generally produce seven or eight young ones at a birth; and it has been calculated that, if the progeny from a single pair could, without interruption, proceed in the same ratio for four or five years, the whole stock would, even in that short period, amount to more than one million. The particular uses of the rabbit are nearly the same as those of the hare (73). The _fur_ is a principal substance employed in the composition of hats; and such parts of it as are unfit for this purpose may advantageously be adopted for the stuffing of beds and bolsters. Rabbits' skins are also sometimes used as a cheap and warm-trimming for female dress; and the _skins_ themselves, after the hair has been stripped from them, are boiled down, and made into size or glue. The _flesh_, though, like that of the hare, forbidden to the Jews and Mahometans, is a very delicate and palatable food. We are informed by Pliny, the Roman naturalist, that the ancients had a favourite dish which was made of sucking leverets or rabbits unpaunched. The modes of ascertaining the quality of rabbits as food are nearly the same as those which have been mentioned respecting the hare.