390 



INFLUENCES OF CULTIVATION 



by the protection afforded by town and village. So it is 

 with other seed-eating birds condemned by the farmer and 

 gardener : in equal steps with the success of their own 

 industry the tillers of the soil have created the plagues of 

 the Wood Pigeon, and the Rook, of the Chaffinch, Bullfinch 

 and their like. And many birds also which avoid the stigma 

 of the farmer's malison owe their numbers in great part to 

 the harvests of the fields. 



RABBIT SKINS 

 AT DUMFRIES FAIR 



* 



11 





1828 1834 1845 '853 1856 1859(1 year 



1830 1840 1851 1854 1857 1860 only) 



1831 1841 1852 1855 1858 1861 1871 



Fig. 67. RABBITS AND CULTIVATION : Numbers of Rabbit-Skins offered 

 for sale at Dumfries Fair from 18-28 to 1871. The columns represent 3-years' totals 

 (where the years are not continuous, no record exists for the omitted years) and show a 

 progressive and marked increase throughout the century. This increase corresponds with 

 a period of increasing agricultural activity. 



Amongst the mammals which have gained most ad- 

 vantage from cultivation are naturally the vegetarian rodents. 

 The increase of Rabbits, as I have previously shown, was 

 contemporaneous with the development of cultivation. This 

 association is clearly shown in the statistics of the rabbit- 

 skins offered for sale throughout the nineteenth century at 

 the Dumfries Fur Market. The diagram above represents 

 the numbers of skins, the records available being arranged 



