THE SMALL-MAMMAL PROBLEM 737 
character ; hundreds of new factories (with dwellings for work- 
people), new docks, and even new towns came into being in 
response to military requirements, and every addition of that 
sort meant new quarters for rats and mice. In order to feed 
our forces and ourselves, enormous quantities of foodstuffs were 
imported, and warehoused in all parts of the country; many 
thousands of acres, previously untilled, were now brought 
under cultivation, and in laudable endeavours to increase the 
food resources of the nation, all classes devoted themselves to 
the cultivation of allotments and the rearing of poultry and 
rabbits. Such efforts greatly increased the food supplies 
accessible to rats and mice. As the war developed, labour 
was steadily diverted to military purposes; scavenger, rat- 
catcher, and gamekeeper disappeared. Regulations made 
under the Defence of the Realm Act prohibited the use of 
foodstuffs for the purposes of rat and mouse destruction. 
By such means we gave rats and mice shelter, sustenance, 
and security on a scale of unprecedented lavishness. The 
high fecundity of these creatures enabled or forced them 
to take quick advantage of these favourable conditions, and 
we were soon faced with grave peril. With the cessation of 
the work of the gamekeeper, the native carnivora began 
naturally to recover some of their lost numbers; but their 
relatively low fecundity, and the fact that they had been 
brought so low by pre-war vandalism, prevented them from 
increasing in due proportion with the increasing numbers of 
the rodents. Besides, the accommodation for carnivora was 
considerably decreased by the war conditions; not only were 
new towns and factories built in formerly wild districts, and 
waste lands brought under cultivation, but much of the wood- 
land, the natural stronghold of most carnivora, was destroyed. 
The rapid growth of the rat population caused public 
inconvenience and alarm; heavy losses were inflicted upon 
individuals and upon the State by the depredations of these 
animals, and it appeared not improbable that they were largely 
instrumental in disseminating various epidemic diseases then 
ravaging the civil and military population. Towards the close 
of 1917 considerable outcry against these pests arose ; and was 
met by the issue of emergency regulations by Government 
