Country Life
MYXOMATOSIS is again reported a little farther north than it once was, but so far it has not made a rapid advance as it may do in hotter weather. The rabbit population in my dis- trict seems to be four or five times greater than it was, but of course this is not so. At this time of year, with young rabbits being born in every outlying burrow and the young being so unwary of their enemies, one sees many more rabbits. A large number of the little hoppers die on the road or are taken by cats, dogs, foxes and other hunting. animals. Their numbers never seem to diminish, how- ever. I crossed a mound the other day and was amused to see ten or a dozen small heads pop up, each with cocked ears. They waited only a second before they made a dash for a burrow. There was quite a congestion at the mouths of the holes before the last white tail disappeared. The farmer whose land I was crossing would not have taken such a benign interest, for already the youthful colony has taken enough corn and young grass to feed some fair-sized sheep. By a simple progres- sion I can see that he has a slender chance of having any corn at all come harvest time.'
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