212 LEPORID.E— ORYCTOLAGUS 



keepers have given similar testimony. Mr Cocks has, however, 

 met with one instance ; and other cases of the production of 

 litters at intervals of from two to nine days have been placed 

 on record.^ 



It is evident from the above facts that the multiplication 

 of this species is extremely rapid ; ^ so much so that although, 

 until the recent fall in prices, it was capable of yielding, if 

 properly managed, both profit and pleasure to sportsmen, on 

 arable farms it often becomes an intolerable scourge to the 

 agriculturist, unless its numbers are constantly kept in check. 

 Since the destruction of our native beasts and birds of prey, 

 most of which are very fond of rabbit's flesh, its most deadly 

 foe is man, who pursues it with guns, traps, nets, dogs, and 

 ferrets. But rats are no mean rivals, and in the summer they 

 live to a great extent in rabbit-burrows, where they kill and 

 eat the young ; and domestic cats are also very fond of 

 poaching. 



The effect of rabbits on a local flora is often more consider- 

 able than is generally known, and is both destructive and 

 constructive. The original vegetation is usually destroyed in 

 the immediate neighbourhood of a warren, to be replaced by a 

 new flora. The details are, no doubt, difierent according 

 to the locality and the nature of the soil. On good land the 

 grass gives way, and thistles, nettles, and other weeds gain a 

 footing from which it is hard to eject them. Where the soil is 

 loose, as when there are sandhills, the damage is most marked. 



The interaction of rabbits and vegetation in Breckland, a 

 big sandy district surrounding the town of Thetford, on the 

 borders of Norfolk and Suffolk, has been studied by Mr A. 

 Wallis.^ He has shown that grass, gorse, and ling are 

 destroyed by being eaten, and sand sedge, for which the rabbits 

 have no liking, then flourishes. But burrowing on a large 



' G. Griffiths, Field, 4th October 1890, 501 (two litters of six each, at interval of 

 two days); J. E. H. Hasted, Field, i6th April 1892, 545 (litters of four and three, 

 with five days' interval ; litter of two, followed nine days later by litter of one). 



^ The rate of multiplication has, however, been frequently exaggerated, and a 

 commercial estimate of the average number reaching a good saleable size from a 

 single pair in one season is, even in a favourable climate, not over twelve to fifteen 

 (Simpson, op. cit, 20). 



^ In J. E. Marr and A. E. Shipley's Handbook to the Natural History of 

 Cambridgeshire, 1904, 226-228. 



