Little doubt exists amongst naturalists that all the varieties of the domestic animal are descended from Oryctolagus cuniculus.
Till recently the rabbit has generally been known scientifically as Lepus cuniculus, but it is now frequently regarded, at least by systematic naturalists, as the representative of a genus by itself, under the The Rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus).
The land mammals of Greenland are decidedly more American than European; the musk-ox, the banded lemming (Cuniculus torquatus), the white polar wolf, of which there seems to have been a new invasion recently round the northern part of the country to the east coast, the Eskimo and the dog - probably also the reindeer - have all come from America, while the other land mammals, the polar bear, the polar fox, the Arctic hare, the stoat (Mustela erminea), are perfectly circumpolar forms. The species of seals and whales are, if anything, more American than European, and so to some extent are the fishes.
Under the name of Oryctolagus cuniculus, the rabbit is considered to represent a genus by itself, specially characterized by the shortness of the ears and hind-feet.
The skull is I There are no native names either in Teutonic or Celtic languages; such words as German Kaninchen or English cony are from the Latin cuniculus, while the Irish, Welsh and Gaelic are adaptations from English.
