Equator

Rabbits On The

Strange Colony at Phoenix Is.

rIS interesting nature note from the Pacific was given to me by Mr. E. R.

Bevington (now an AO in the Gil bert Islands), who, with a number of other officials, was ashore on Phoenix Island (Central Pacific) three or four years ago.

Some time in last century, someone released rabbits on uninhabited Phoenix Island: and, although it is a waterless, tree-less, flat coralline island, the animals settled in, lived on the rough herbage, and multiplied.

Mr. Bevington says that they are there in large numbers. They are well-grown, in good condition, and they may be had in almost any hue—intensive inbreeding has produced a wide range of colours.

They do not run away from men as fast as the average wild rabbit, probably because they are not accustomed to men; and, if thev can be headed off from their burrows—which they share with the numerous seabirds—they can be caught by hand. The young men of Mr. Beving ton’s party ran down a satisfactory supply of fresh meat.

Mr. Bevington took 32 of the captives to Beru, in the Southern Gilberts, where he was AO for a time, and released them there, in the hope that they would start a colony and provide a supply of meat.

But, although the rabbits fed eagerly upon coconuts, they did not prosper. Mr.

Bevington said that when he was last in Beru, in January, 1941, there were only

two or three left.

R. W. R.

Mr. A. Olsen, planter, of Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands, arrived in Sydney re cently to join the AIF.