Belgian Hare hind quarters. Their head is long and their tail straight and carried in line with the backbone. The fore feet of a Belgian Hare are usually long and fine-boned and perfectly straight, while their hind feet long are fine and flat. They are believed to be the only breed of domestic rabbit featuring a deep red, rich chestnut color of the Belgian Hare, together with black ticking of a wavy or blotchy appearance and an extended down the sides. In the USA, Rufus Red coloration is the only variety recognized. The BRC now recognizes both Black and Tan (called the
European rabbit intended meaning. Like the Phoenicians, neither the later Greek nor Roman colonizers had a specific name for the rabbit, because the species is not native to Greece and Italy (though it is present there nowadays). They commonly called it "small hare" and "small digging hare", in contrast to the European hare, which is larger and doesn't make burrows. Catullus used the name "cuniculus" (a latinization of the Iberian word "kiniklos" and the etymological origin of the Castilian name "conejo", Portuguese "coelho" and Catalan "conill", and the old English name, "coney"), and referenced its abundance in Celtiberia by calling this region