358 
Fig. 4. Dorsal and ventral views of two adult 
female (left) and two adult male (right) Oryctolagus 
cuniculus collected February 29, 1964, on Manana. 
(Photo by P. Q. Tomich.) 
Fig. 5. Freshly shot rabbit from Manana showing 
wild-type pelage except for white foreleg. Notebook 
is 18 cm in length. (Photo by K. Wodzicki, March 1, 
1964.) 
whether he was merely paraphrasing the 1901 
statement. A few years later, rabbits may have 
been plentiful because a note from the Terri- 
torial Division of Forestry (Anon., 1919), 
which apparently had charge of the island then, 
said, "In March, 1918, 3 chauffeurs were ar- 
rested for going to Manana and killing rabbits 
PACIFIC SCIENCE, Vol. XXII, July 1968 
without a permit. . . E. H. Bryan, Jr. records 
3 rabbits seen on the August 25-26, 1934 ex- 
pedition and that they were seemingly in good 
condition. Vegetation at that time was consid- 
ered doing well. The next report is by Richard- 
son and Fisher (1950) who made 14 half-day 
trips to Manana between October 1946 and 
August 1948. They saw from 2 to about 30 
rabbits per trip, with the maximum number ob- 
served in June 1948. Wodzicki notes (in litt.) 
that on August 31, 1961 the landing on Manana 
was made for about an hour at mid-day, and 
5 or 6 rabbits were seen, including the 2 col- 
lected. On October 27 of the same year, 15 
rabbits were shot as a part of the extermination 
program (Woodside, personal communication). 
These scattered records indicate a large early 
rabbit population on Manana and later popula- 
tions stabilized at low to moderate levels. 
On the February 29-March 1, 1964 trip, rab- 
bits were seen commonly. As the party climbed 
into the main crater at 4:30 pm, several rab- 
bits were on the dry grassy slope above the 
beach. Two hunters moving in advance shot 
two of them among the tobacco plants. Here, 
as within the crater, the rabbits had burrowed 
in the friable soil. There seemed to be no dis- 
tinction between old burrows seasonally used 
by various birds and those used by rabbits. 
Thousands of prenesting Sooty Terns milled 
day and night over the island. At night small 
numbers of them, as well as of Wedge-tailed 
Shearwaters, settled, and some were banded by 
a party of ornithologists also visiting the island. 
In the crater, by 6:00 pm, the hunters shot and 
recovered 11 more rabbits. Each person who 
entered the crater reported seeing several rab- 
bits, in spite of the shooting. Here the vegeta- 
tion was still quite green, and Trichachne 
insularis was seeding heavily. After dark only 
a few rabbits were noted, even with the aid of 
lights. The population for the island may have 
been as many as 100 juveniles and adults. This 
would be a fairly large number to be supported 
by the vegetation, which covers about 10 ha. 
Heavy rains later in March were effective in 
extending the growing period into summer, and 
thus replenishing the food supply. 
Rabbit pellets were noticeably scarce on 
February 29, 1964, in relation to the observed 
abundance of rabbits. Pellets found, except for 
