leporine

Of, relating to, or characteristic of a hare or a rabbit.

His leporine ears perked up at the mention of dessert.

This [the harp seal] inhabits the ſame countries vvith the Rough and Leporine Seal; but loves the coldeſt parts of the coaſt.

Synonym of leporid (“any mammal of the family Leporidae: the hares and rabbits”).

The most frequent intestinal parasite of rodents is probably Oxyuris ambigua, but Strong. retortæformis is tolerably abundant in the hare, and Trichocephalus unguiculatus is liable to occur in all leporines. […] Acari infest rats and mice, and especially leporines.

It will be seen that the variability in any one formula (excepting the anomaly of m. ⁴⁄₄) is confined to the premolars; that these only vary in one instance in the Hystricines; and that the incisors only vary from ²⁄₂ to ⁴⁄₂ in the Leporines.

A supposed hybrid between a hare and a rabbit, now known not to exist; a leporide.

I come now to the more interesting part of my subject, viz. that of the Leporines—hybrids, so called, between the hare and the rabbit. It has been stated that M. Rouy, of Angoulême, has bred for the market a thousand of these Leporines yearly—that they are fertile both with the hare and the rabbit, and with each other.

In France there is a hybrid bred between the rabbit and the hare, known as the leporine, that is said to be fertile; I do not know much about it. I tried to get some definite information on the matter and failed. I simply know that I have seen numers of statements going the rounds of the press that the leporine is a valuable poultry animal raised for food, and is a cross between the hare and the rabbit, and that it is fertile. If so, it is the only case I know of where the continued fertility is kept up.