Rabbiting on

THE picture of two young rabbits on the April 13 cover reminded me of the war years, when I tended my uncle’s Flemish Giants. This led to me keeping them through to my college days—always for their meat. It would no doubt be frowned upon nowadays, but it kept me active, as one had to gather cow parsley and dandelions and toast any stale bread for them to nibble each day. It is such a shame that today’s youngsters are allowed to treat their pet rabbits as cuddly play things and often overfeed them with bought-in pellets.

Jim Bell, Herefordshire

ABSENT from ‘Down the rabbit hole’ (April 13) was any reference to R. M. Lockley who, living on Skokholm Island off Pembrokeshire and anxious to remove the rabbits, participated from 1936–38 with Sir Charles Martin in using the myxomatosis virus—although without success. The island rabbits lack fleas and, therefore, the main vector of the virus, although this was unknown then.

Thirty years later, after studying rabbits at Orielton Pembrokeshire, Lockley’s book The Private Life of the Rabbit—which concludes: ‘Rabbits are so human. Or is it the other way round—humans are so rabbit’ —inspired Richard Adams in writing Watership Down.

David Saunders, Pembrokeshire