Rabbit skin

“ The usual and time-honoured method of dressing skins, say a rabbit's skin, is — directly it is removed from the animal — to nail it on a board, and rub it in with alum four parts, and common salt one part, or plunge it in a warm solution of the same for a day or so, taking it out, nailing it on a board, letting it dry, rubbing it down with pumice stone, and plunging it again and again, and repeating the drying and pumice-stoning process until the skin becomes pliable. ”

“ 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 was exhibited in 1867 with its two ears, measured from the tip of one to the tip of the other, 22 inches in length, and each ear 5-3/8 inches in breadth. ”

“ The external characters of the rabbit.—The outside of the rabbit’s body is almost entirely covered with fur. This consists of two kinds of hair—coarse and fine. The coarser hairs are fewer in number and longer than the fine ones, which they protect from wet. The fine hairs are extremely closely-set, and stand straight out from the skin. In a seal-skin coat only the short hairs of the fur are to be found; the longer hairs have been removed by the dressing process. The great warmth of furs is due to the air which is entangled between the fine, close hairs. ”

“ Over the rabbit pelts I wore my regular woollen socks, duffel neaps, and caribou-skin mitten moccasins. The pelts had been removed from the rabbits by simply cutting them between the hind legs, and then peeling them off inside out. With the inside of the skin next the foot blisters never form, nor does the hair wear off and ball up under the foot in such a way that it may hurt the wearer. Though the rabbit pelt is very tender and tears easily, it can be worn for five or six days of hard travel. For warmth and comfort it is unexcelled. ”

“ A very young rabbit is unsatisfactory as regards the genitalia, but otherwise there is no objection to a little one, and it has this advantage-- that it may be immersed more conveniently under water, in a large pie dish, for purposes of fine dissection. The external features of the animal should be examined: eyelids, whiskers and teeth, toes, anus, perineal space on either side of the same, urogenital opening, and position of the ribs, vertebral column, and limb girdles beneath the skin should be made out. ”

“ ‘He’s made himself a rabbit-skin cap, Jim, and a rabbit-skin collar that he buttons on outside his coat. They ain’t got but one overcoat among ‘em over there, and they take turns wearing it. They seem awful scared of cold, and stick in that hole in the bank like badgers.’
‘All but the crazy boy,’ Jake put in. ”

“ Trapping rabbits for their skins has become an important industry, in which many men are engaged, and this has tended to make them less of a menace to the sheep runs. Exports of rabbit skins now bring in between two and three million dollars annually. Most of them go to Great Britain and the United States where the fur is manufactured into felt hats. It takes the fur of six rabbits to make a man’s hat. Considerable numbers of frozen rabbits are also shipped from Dunedin to the world’s markets. ”

“ The Common or Wild Rabbit.—This well-known rodent belong to the same family (Leporidæ) as the hare, but is smaller in size, and its hind legs and ears are shorter. In the wild state the fur of the rabbit is a greyish-brown; the colour under domestication, however, changes frequently to black, white or other shades. The fur is used for many purposes, as the manufacture of hats, the imitation of more costly furs, etc. The rabbit is one of the most prolific of animals in Australia and New Zealand, where it was introduced from England, it has increased so rapidly as to become a serious pest. ”

“ The fur is greatly in request for the making of imitation ermine, and good skins are always saleable to the manufacturers. Now that we have this beautiful little rabbit in our hutch, how are we to preserve its distinctive markings in all their beauty? For be it remembered that the white turns yellow, and the black or dark brown markings grey, unless proper attention is paid to them. In Chinese or Russian markets where these rabbits are on sale, we are told that the colour, especially on the feet, is not so distinct as is seen in our domestic specimens ”

“ At the market I chose those animals that blushed most easily and frequently, just as the slave-dealer picks out for the harem those women who charm by blushing more vividly than the others. If one studies attentively the loss of colour in the ears of a rabbit when perfectly quiet, one can nearly always discover the cause in some external circumstance. Often while the animal has red ears and is breathing quietly, one notices a sudden change in the rhythm of respiration; the rabbit lifts its head, looks around, or sniffs; a contraction of the blood-vessels follows, and the ears become pale. ”

“ It is marvellous to note with what a venomous hatred the beater regards the bunny. Pheasant or partridge he is careless of; even the hare is, in comparison, a thing of nought, but let him once set eyes on a rabbit, and his whole being seems to change. His eye absolutely flashes, his chest heaves with excitement beneath the ancient piece of sacking that protects his form from thorns. If the rabbit falls to the shot, he yells with exultation; if it be missed, an expression of morose and gloomy disappointment settles on his face, as who should say, "Things are played out; the world is worthless!" ”

“ When waiting in a dry ditch with a gun on a warm autumn afternoon for a rabbit to come out, sometimes a bunny will suddenly appear at the mouth of a hole which your knee nearly touches. He stops dead, as if petrified with astonishment, sitting on his haunches. ”

“ The rabbit, failing to find a cover, hides in the grass and dry rushes; but across the meadow, stealing along the furrow, comes the weasel; and, shift his place how he may, in the end, worn out and weary, bunny succumbs, and the sharp teeth meet in the neck behind the ear, severing the vein. ”

“ Their food consists entirely of grass, which they nibble much after the fashion of our common rabbit. They never burrow or dig holes in the ground, but pass their lives among the loose stones. Who can fail to trace the evidence of Divine care in colouring the fur of this defenceless creature in a garb exactly resembling the grey lichen-covered fragments amongst which he is destined to pass his life? ”

“ The bones of young animals become quite soft in the bath, and the hair is difficult to dress to look like life. The fur of a rabbit is the meanest fur in the world to comb out and dress to look fluffy and immaculate after it has once been wet with salt-and-alum water. Mount them without wetting when you can, only poison them well against moths. Alcohol is far preferable to the bath for the skins of such species as the above, and, as our English cousins would say, is "not half bad." ”

“ Remove such of these as persist with the handle-held fur needle and then set the specimen in a well ventilated place to dry.
The principal point in preparing thin or{59} stretchy small mammal skins for mounting is to leave the membrane of skin-muscles on the body skin. This holds a flabby skin in shape and lends strength to a frail one. In spite of this the legs of most wild rabbits must be handled very gingerly, as they have no lining membrane like the body. For finishing mouth, nose, and eyelids of mounted mammals, melt a little refined beeswax in a metal vessel. ”

“ The fur of fancy rabbits may be blue, or rather lead-colour, and white, or black and white, or tawny and white, that is, tortoiseshell-coloured. But it is not of so much importance what colours the coat of a rabbit displays, as it is that those colours shall be arranged in a particular manner, forming imaginary figures or fancied resemblances to certain objects. ”

“ Generally, the rabbits are prized for the number of these black spots upon the head and body, and for the fineness and length and size of the ears, which occasions their falling about the head, in a manner different from the common rabbit. Black and tortoise-shell are the favourite colours.
Rabbits are divided into four kinds—warreners, parkers, hedgehogs, and sweethearts. Burrowing under ground is favourable, it appears, to the growth of fur; and the warrener, though a member of a subterraneous city, is less effeminate than his kindred who roam more at large. ”

“ But the rabbit, though not of so flexible a nature as the hare, being less diffused, and seemingly confined to particular countries, is, nevertheless, subject to more variations; because the hare is in every part of the world wild, whereas the rabbit is almost every where half domesticated. The wild rabbits have varied in their colours, from fallow to white or black; they have also varied in size, and in the quantity and quality of their fur. This animal, which is originally a native of Spain, has acquired a long tail in Tartary, and a thick bushy coat in Syria. ”

“ The rabbit has its wild enemies, ever watchful, ever close on its trail. The hawk, the mink, the weasel, the fox, the lynx, and others are rabbit hunters. Besides his quick hearing, and his swiftness, Br'er Rabbit has a wonderful power of becoming invisible. His nondescript colour, combined with his ability to "freeze," serve him as well as a cloak of darkness. The cotton-tail rabbit is commonest in the Middle and Southern states, while his bigger cousin, the varying hare, overlaps the rabbit's territory in the colder parts, and takes his place in the most Northern states. ”

“ Rabbits.—There are two sorts, the tame and wild; the wild or gray inhabits the mountainous districts; has the finest flavor, or on those places where it can feed on thyme, geneva, or other aromatic herbs, or on the sea coast, where he gets the lichen or wild moss. It has a much darker color than the tame. The tame rabbit, if properly fed 21 days before killing, may be made a very delicate article of nourishment; it should be kept from two to four days. When killed it should be removed to a cold place as quick as possible, that the fat may set. ”

“ The thick pads of hair on the soles of its feet enable it to move noiselessly. The thick, soft, inner hair keeps the animal warm, while the longer, stiffer, outer hair sheds the rain. [Pg 75]
Impress upon the pupils the cruelty of rough handling of the rabbit and of neglecting to provide it with a place for exercise and with a clean, dry home.
The following pet animals may be studied, using the same order and general method of treatment: pigeon, cat, canary, guinea pig, white mouse, raccoon, squirrel, parrot. ”

“ The lop-eared rabbit is a stately beast and less brisk than his prick-eared relations. The Himalayan rabbit has no connection with the mountain chain from which it has its name, is white, with all its extremities—nose, ears, tail, and feet—black or very dark in color. The Dutch rabbits are small. The body is colored, but the neck, forelegs, and jaws are white. But to the ordinary owner of a rabbit in a hutch, particular variety does not matter very much. ”

“ Rabbits are kept either in hutches or in warrens, where they make burrows in the ground, and live almost in a state of nature. Rabbit warrens are of very great extent, varying from a hundred to three thousand acres, and they can only be formed in dry sandy soils. When rabbits are kept in hutches, the rabbit-house should be particularly dry and well ventilated, as rabbits are very subject to a disease called the rot, which is a species of liver complaint, brought on by impure air and improper food. ”

“ 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. ”

“ It is, again, a great advantage to the rabbit and hare to be colored like earth; black or white rabbits are more easy to see, and consequently more likely to be killed. This, however, does not apply to those which are kept in captivity, and we know that tame rabbits are often black and white. ”

“ Rabbits, and other wild animals, you know, have very good noses for smelling. They can smell danger a good way off, and they can smell their food, and smell their way about, so they will not run into things when they are hurrying along at night.
“Let’s have a game of tag,” said Flop Ear to Pink Nose, as he saw his brother lying in the sun on a pile of soft leaves near the front door of the underground burrow. “Come on, let’s see if you can tag me.” ”

“ The Rabbit, as this animal is named in the United States, has the habits of the European Hare, forming a flat, well-beaten, oblong space among the grass, on which it rests during the day. It never burrows like the Common Rabbit of Europe, although it resorts for safety to the hollows of fallen trunks, or those frequently existing at the roots of standing trees, as well as to cavities in rocks. It feeds principally towards the approach of night and early in the morning, and spends the greater part of the day in its form. ”

“ His colour is a grey mixt with a reddish brown, perfectly like the wild or warren rabbit. His belly is white, from the point of the lower jaw, to where his tail would begin, if that he had one. All over his body he has scattered hairs, strong and polished like his mustachoes, these are for the most part two inches and a quarter in length. His ears are round, not pointed. He makes no noise that ever I heard, but certainly chews the cud. To discover this, was the principal reason of my keeping him alive; those with whom he is acquainted he follows with great assiduity. ”