Phillips. — 0)i Babbit-disease. 321 



The suggestion of Mr. Broden (p. 15) to introduce the 

 tishers and the marten is hardly suitable to the conditions. 

 Both these animals are only forms of the polecat that are 

 specially adapted for living in dense subarctic forests. I am 

 afraid that in New Zealand they would not live in our open 

 country, but take to the bush, where there are no rabbits, as 

 in America ; for the American rabbit is really a hare that lives 

 in forest country without making buiTOws. 



It would be advisable to introduce the black-footed ferret 

 which inhabits the j)i'airies west of the Mississippi and lives 

 on the gophers and prairie-dogs, which are rodents that have 

 burrowing habits like our rabbits. Besides, the British mar- 

 tens have even a worse reputation than polecats as destroyers 

 of lambs, one pair having been known to kill twenty-one 

 lambs in a night. 



The suggestion of Mr. Thaine, of Capetown, requires more 

 definite information, founded on experience. 



The civet-cat is not a cat, but a burrowing animal about 

 o^ft. long that inhabits subtropical Africa. As it is of great 

 value on account of its musk-secretion, it would be a useful 

 animal to introduce if it would thrive in this climate and live 

 on rabbits. 



The meer-cat is a small animal like a rat, being the 

 African representative of the Indian mongoos, or ichneumon. 

 It burrows in the dry arid plains of South Africa, and is very 

 plentiful there. The Indian mongoos has already been turned 

 out in New Zealand ; but I have recommended the introduc- 

 tion of the kit-fox, a small species that lives in Oregon, and 

 the Canadian lynx, as the most natural enemies of the rabbit. 



James Hector. 



N.W. Mounted Police, 

 Battleford, 17th January, 1889. 

 To the Officer commanding C Division, N.W.M.P. 



Silt, — In compliance with instructions received hoin you, I 

 beg leave to report that last year and up to the present time 

 there has been an unusual scarcity of rabbits in this part of 

 the Saskatchewan district. 



Every seven years the rabbits indigenous to this country 

 become affected with a disease of the epizootic type, which, 

 in my opinion, is malignant anthrax. The development of this 

 disease may arise from contagion, mosquitoes and other in- 

 sects with perforating apparatus to the mouth helping to 

 communicate the disease ; frequent inundations of banks of 

 rivers ; very warm, dry summers ; extreme vicissitudes in 

 temperature of either night or day. 



During the summer of 1886 and the spring of 1887 an 

 21 



