DESTRUCTION OF RABBITS. I05 
caoutchouc and other manufactures, the workmen employed are 
apt to suffer from headache, loss of appetite, and impaired sight 
and hearing. But, while its injurious action on the human 
nervous system thus causes general derangement of health, it is 
fatal to rabbits; and bisulphide of carbon is therefore perhaps 
the best means of suffocating them in large numbers—unless this 
be held to be “ poisoning,” and therefore contrary to Section 6 
of the Ground Game Act, in which case the Statute ought to be 
amended, as this means of suffocation by an anesthetic should 
be as nearly as possible painless—and at a comparatively small 
cost. As it is highly inflammable, care must be taken when 
using it. 
For carrying out operations three men are needed. One of 
these carries a large tinful of the poison and a supply of rags 
for saturating and shoving into the rabbit-holes, while the other 
two stop up most of the entrances and exits. The most 
convenient size for each rag is about ro or 12 inches square. 
It is crumpled into a ball, held in the left hand, and saturated 
by pouring the poison on to it from the spout of a little cup 
with a closed lid—this small vessel being refilled from the 
large tin as occasion requires. Immediately on the rag being 
saturated at the mouth of the burrow, it is shoved home into 
it with a stick about 4 feet long, while the second man thrusts 
in a handful of small twigs, and then closes the hole as quickly 
as possible with a mattock, and rams down the earth firmly. As 
fast as he can, the first workman saturates and inserts another 
rag into another hole, which the third workman also immediately 
closes, after shoving home a handful of brushwood to prevent 
the rag getting covered with sand and earth, and thus rendered 
comparatively ineffective. 
On burrows that have many entrances and exits, several 
holes are thus operated upon, but not all of them, so that the 
poisonous gas circulates throughout the whole burrow. During 
dull, damp weather, and in the early morning are the best times 
for operating, as the rabbits are then most likely to be inside 
their burrows; but it is always best to sound wooden rattles to 
drive them in before beginning operations. The best time of 
the year for taking this measure is from November to March. 
' It is not claimed for this that it will exterminate rabbits; but 
where they exist in large numbers it is an easy and effective 
means of even more than decimating them quickly and cheaply 
