hardly any animal is more difficult to tame than the young of the wild rabbit; scarcely any animal is tamer than the young of the tame rabbit
 Charles Darwin, On The Origin of Species (1859). copy citation

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Author Charles Darwin
Source On The Origin of Species
Topic taming animal
Date 1859
Language English
Reference
Note
Weblink http://www.gutenberg.org/files/2009/2009-h/2009-h.htm

Context

“and unconscious selection is still in progress, as each man tries to procure, without intending to improve the breed, dogs which stand and hunt best. On the other hand, habit alone in some cases has sufficed; hardly any animal is more difficult to tame than the young of the wild rabbit; scarcely any animal is tamer than the young of the tame rabbit; but I can hardly suppose that domestic rabbits have often been selected for tameness alone; so that we must attribute at least the greater part of the inherited change from extreme wildness to extreme tameness, to habit and long-continued close confinement.” source