Spectator's Notebook
YXOMATOSIS (see this week's leader) is in the news again. I find that expert opinion tends to support the view that 1965 may be the year in which the farmer's pest (and townsman's pet) finally re-establishes itself. It is possible to derive a certain philosophical reassurance from this sign of nature's unending resilience. Farmers, however, will have to strain somewhat to see it that way. Hence renewed campaigns to kill off the multiplying rabbits. Someone has sent me a copy of the Essex Farmers Journal con- taining a ruthless article demanding: 'Rabbits must never be given any quarter.' The writer, a ministry pests officer, explains that inefficient control may in fact make the survivors more prolific than they were before. I find this interest- ing because it contradicts the popular idea of the fecundity of the rabbit. In a colony of rabbits that is fairly numerous (so I read) the 'boss rabbit' will have a harem of wives, some younger wives may not be allowed to breed at all, and the younger bucks are not allowed to mate with them. If the 'boss rabbit' is killed this may well mean that the younger bucks and does will be allowed to breed and a quick expansion of the colony results. In other words, rabbits (of all creatures) practise birth control if left to them- selves.
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