BRITISH FERTILITY 193 



this species is not the carrion crow, like ours, 

 though so closely resembling it in appearance. It 

 picks up its subsistence about the fields, and is not 

 considered an unclean bird. The British carrion 

 crow is a much more rare species. It is a strong, 

 fierce bird, and often attacks and kills young lambs 

 or rabbits. 



What is true of the birds is true of the rabbits, 

 and probably of the other smaller animals. The 

 British rabbit breeds seven times a year, and usually 

 produces eight young at a litter; while, so far as 

 I have observed, the corresponding species in this 

 country breeds not more than twice, producing from 

 three to four young. The western gray rabbit 

 is said to produce three or four broods a year of 

 four to six young. It is calculated that in England 

 a pair of rabbits will, in the course of four years, 

 multiply to one million two hundred and fifty 

 thousand. If unchecked for one season, this game 

 would eat the farmers up. In the parks of the 

 Duke of Hamilton, the rabbits were so numerous 

 that I think one might have fired a gun at random 

 with his eyes closed and knocked them over. They 

 scampered right and left as I advanced, like leaves 

 blown by the wind. Their cotton tails twinkled 

 thicker than fireflies in our summer night. In the 

 Highlands, where there were cultivated lands, and 

 in various other parts of England and Scotland that 

 I visited, they were more abundant than chipmunks 

 in our beechen woods. The revenue derived from 

 the sale of the ground game on some estates is an 



