leporine

adj

1. (also, figuratively, not-comparable)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.”

   “Thus it is that one injustice generates another, and that the breed is propagated, with more than leporine fecundity, through every successive measure which these third-rate Legislators, these Statesmen in waiting, are sent to inflict upon Ireland.”

   “[T]he fur [of the hispid hare] is very remarkable for an animal of the Leporine group, on account of its harshness, which is well expressed by the specific appellation hispidus.”

   “I further give an anatomical systematic revision of the adult leporine tapeworms, together with their generic relationship to the cestodes of cattle, sheep, and horses.”

noun

1. 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.”

   “+Trischizolagus has been proposed as a probable Oryctolagus ancestor, as well as for Lepus and other leporines, although no transitional populations have yet been found.”

   “The western Balearic Islands (Mallorca, Menorca, Ibiza, Formentera) have an insular history since the Miocene, and are famed for the unique caprine Myotragus (a goat relative) and endemic leporines (rabbits). […] [R]aptors coevolved with the insular radiations of rodents, leporines, and larger mammals.”

   “They [the Mexican volcano rabbit and the South African red rock hare] may be leftovers of a primitive stock because their distribution is peripheral to that of the advanced leporines.”

2. (historical)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.”

   “Mr. Thomas Christy enquired what position the so-called Belgian Hare or Leporine occupied in relation to the question of hybridity; and was answered that the popular notion of that animal being a hybrid between Hare and Rabbit was fallacious, since it was nothing more than an overgrown tame Rabbit coloured like a Hare.”

   “[…] [Charles] Darwin was intrigued by contemporary experiments claiming to have produced hare–rabbit crosses or ‘leporines’ (‘most curious, if true’), […] [T]hose supporting the existence of leporines were giving credence to a creature as actually imposible and fabulous as the horned hare.”