Welsh cuisine roasted cheese led to the dish of Welsh rarebit, or Welsh rabbit, seasoned melted cheese poured over toasted bread. The cheese would need to be a harder one, such as cheddar or similar. Referred to as Welsh rabbit as early as 1725, the name is not similar to the Welsh term "caws pobi". Welsh folk rarely ate rabbit due to the cost and as land owners would not allow rabbit hunting, so the term is more likely a slur on the Welsh. The name evolved from rabbit to rarebit, possibly to remove the slur from Welsh cuisine or due to
Dream of the Rarebit Fiend and had McCay give up comic strips in favor of editorial cartooning. McCay revived the strip in 1923–1925 as "Rarebit Reveries", of which few examples have survived. A number of film adaptations of "Rarebit Fiend" have appeared, including Edwin S. Porter's live-action "Dream of a Rarebit Fiend" in 1906, and four pioneering animated films by McCay himself: "How a Mosquito Operates" in 1912, and 1921's "Bug Vaudeville", "The Pet", and "The Flying House". The strip is said to have anticipated a number of recurring ideas in popular culture, such as marauding giant beasts damaging cities—as later popularized by "King Kong"