Populous Vermin -
Perhaps because of very open weather, rats and rabbits, both undesirable neighbours, are already breeding. It is a grim calculation that a pair of either species may increase the popula- tion by several hundred within the year. The rat has the bigger litter—often about the size of a big covey of partridges—but the rabbit perhaps practises a quicker succession of offspring. Thanks to the present value of their skins and flesh, rabbits have been nearly exterminated in some districts, and while the value remains, it is quite superfluous to urge destruction ; but a thorough campaign against rats, whose numbers today are legion, is becoming a necessary act of national economy. Their dog and cat enemies are fewer, though perhaps foxes, which destroy quantities, are more numerous. So are stoats and weasels, which expel rats if they do not destroy them.
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