REPORT OF THE ORNITHOLOGIST AND MAMMALOGIST. 255 



Tlie sum voted this year by parliament for rabbit extirpation is £10,000, and I learn 

 from the Sydney papers that in New South Wales no less than £74,000 lias been 

 voted for the same work and in South Australia the amount is £30,000; so that it 

 will bo seen that Victoria is by no means the greatest sufferer, more especially as 

 slie is at the expense of labor and material on crown lands in jiastoral occupation 

 as well as croAvn lands unoccupied. 



The number of skins exported from Victoria during 1883, as near as can be ascer- 

 tained, was 4,000,000, and the area of land more or less infested is about 20,000,000 

 acres. 



Having given the above sketch anent the introduction, spread of, and damage done 

 by the rabbits, I will now give a few particulars respecting their fecundity and the 

 methods and means employed to destroy them. 



In places where the pest is numerous they can be considerably reduced by trap- 

 ping, hunting with dogs, and shooting; but these methods are expensive, slow, and 

 will never more than thin them out, leaving plenty to multiply again. It can be 

 asserted on good grounds that one pair of rabbits will, under most favorable circum- 

 stances, increase in two and a half years to the enormous number of 2,000,000; this 

 is assuming the district suits them. But, allowing that they only increase to one- 

 fourth that number, it may be easily seen how necessary it is to bo continually on 

 the watch to destroy them. 



Phosphorized oats are much superior to trapping in results, and less expensive; 

 but unfortunately experience proves that they will not always eat this grain, and 

 when grass is at all plentiful the rabbit deems it a much gi-eater delicacy. Singular 

 to say, phosphorized oats are not found effective in all parts, instances being well 

 known in which that poison has been greedily devoured in one district, whilst at the 

 same time in an adjoining one notliing would induce the pests to touch it — bran, 

 chaff, and arsenic being preferred. Neither of the latter mixtures can, however, be 

 used with any effect in wet or damp weather. 



Arsenic and cai-rots, or phosphorized wheat, have also been found effective when 

 the other poisons mentioned fail. 



I am informed by the Hon. A. Morrach, secretary for lands, that there are about 

 500 miles of rabbit-proof wu-e-net fencing erected in this colony of Victoria, at an 

 average cost of £80 per mile. 



The estimated damage by rabbits would be difficult to ascertain, but it may be 

 safely stated that during the last ten years the loss caused by the pest through de- 

 crease in carrymg capabilities of land, destruction to crops, loss of rents, &c. , would 

 amount to at least £3,000,000 sterling. 



JAMES M. MORGAN, 



Consul-General.* 



United States Consulate-General, 



Melbourne, October 5, 1886. 



In New Zealand the legislature took the matter in hand in 1876 

 and began the enactment of a series of stringent laws for the sux^- 

 pression of the rabbit scourge. 



Owners and occupiers of land are compelled, under a penalty, to take eificient 

 steps to clear their property of rabbits on receiving notice to that effect from the 

 mspector of their disti'ict; and continued neglect of such notice gives the uaspector 

 a right to take whatever steps he may deem necessary for the destruction of the rab- 

 bits, and to recover the cost summarily from the defaulting owner, in addition to 

 the penalty. The statute, moreover, exempts from taxation all dogs certified to by 

 an inspector as kept solely for the purpose of destroying rabbits; and imposes a pen- 

 alty tor the destruction or capture of ferrets, weasels, or such other animals as may 

 be otticiaUy proclaimed to be the natural enemies of the rabbit. 



In 1881 more than 500,000 acres of sheep runs were abandoned 

 on account of the rabbits, and the loss to the exports of the colony 

 was calculated to be $2,500,000 per annum; and it was estimated that 

 upwards of 180,000,000 rabbits were killed in New Zealand in little 

 over three years. 



Many cases might be cited, prominent among which is that of the 

 ILnglish Sparrow, to show that the transplanting of a naturally pro- 

 lihc species to a country where the conditions for its existence are 



*U. S. Consular Reports for December, 1886, Vol. XX, No. 73, pp. 483-484. 



