By Mike Sutton

As far back as etymological investigation currently takes us down the rabbit hole in Google’s Library of 30 million books, we find the earliest known origin of the Easter Bunny is its forebear the “Easter Bunnie” – which we know branched from its common ancestor the 19th century German Easter Hare.

In the fossil record of books so far scanned by Google, the earliest known example of this lovely creature, beloved of chocolate loving children, bounded into the binding of a book in 1881:

“Cries from all sides resounded of the “Easter Bunnie! oh, let us try to catch him, and see if he has brought us any Easter eggs,”‘

Full details of this seasonal rabbit hunt are available at the Best Thinking site. But, for now at least, it seems that we have found the oldest Easter Bunnie in the world.