Multiplying Rabbits Some curious facts of biology have emerged from
the enquiry undertaken by the Animal Welfare Society of London Univer- sity. A questionnaire was sent out containing a number of queries about local methods of trapping rabbits. One enquirer made special inquisition into the age and sex of the rabbits caught by the steel trap, and discovered that in his neighbourhood the bucks were six times as numerous as the does. Now it is a well verified fact that a sure way of multiply- ing many mammals (especially rats and rabbits) and some birds is to reduce the percentage of bucks. Why more bucks are killed than does is not made apparent (are the does cleverer in evading any traps ?) ; but if it is true that the steel trap is much more fatal to the buck, then the use of the trap is likely to bring about a " condition precedent " to the multiplication of the species. It is, of course, well known that the profes- sional trappers take trouble to maintain stocks, and release a certain number of does for breeding purposes.
W. BEACH Tnomes.
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