THE STRUGGLE FOR EXISTENCE 59 



The fecundity of this creature is so enormous, that it 

 would task the power of man, even in its confined haunts 

 in Great Britain and Ireland, to keep its numbers 

 within bounds, if it were not that the far greater 

 number of its broods are destroyed by the males. 



There are islets in the Hebrides where rabbits are 

 found, and where, the gun of the sportsman is rarely, 

 if ever, heard, where notwithstanding the fecundity of 

 the species, those that are seen are always in good 

 condition, their numbers receiving sufficient sustenance 

 from the scanty herbage clinging to the sides of the 

 rock, or growing in the hollows and by the shore. 

 The instinct of the male acting in so confined a space 

 suffices to prevent them from increasing beyond their 

 existing numbers, while there are always a sufficient 

 number of broods preserved to continue the species 

 undiminished numerically. But when the rabbit 

 was introduced into the Colonial settlements of the 

 Australian continent, the conditions of its life were 

 wholly changed. There were few carnivorous 

 destroyers to thin its numbers, either on the ground 

 or in the air ; while illimitable space on every side 

 was afforded to the female to hide her broods away 

 from the ken of the male. 



Accordingly, from its amazing fecundity, the species 

 mutiplied and spread with the rapidity of wild-fire, 

 with consequences to the agriculturist and to the 

 stockbreeder too well and sorrowfully known to 

 require description. 



