NEW ZEALAND RED DEER 101 



Talking of rabbits recalls a burning topic of 

 Colonial conversation to mind. In England Lepus 

 Cuniculus is regarded as a useful adjunct towards 

 making up the day's bag, or an ornamental addition 

 to the landscape as he plays in front of the win- 

 dows, while the ladies say, " Oh ! look at the 

 darlings ! " 



The persons I suppose who arrive more nearly at 

 the estimate at which he is held in the Antipodes, are 

 a keeper trying to break in a young dog, and a 

 gardener with a convenient piece of ground nicely 

 planted with young lettuces ! It is difficult for any one 

 else save those who have seen rabbits in a country 

 where every natural feature tends to foster their love 

 for mathematical progression to have a conception of 

 the hatred which flares up whenever they are 

 mentioned. Nothing is bad enough for them, and 

 though some of the means taken to ensure their de- 

 struction are, unfortunately, cruel, it is absolutely 

 impossible to keep their increase in check by fair 

 means or foul. One can have but little feeling where 

 they are concerned, save sympathy for the unfortunate 

 beings to whom they are a veritable Egyptian plague. 

 In Australia many a man has been ruined by them, 

 though it is hard to believe ; but, this realised, the 

 hatred in which they are held and the means devised 

 for their destruction come more within the scope 

 of one's understanding. I know of big run-holders 

 who spend 5000 annually in an endeavour to 

 exterminate them, and yet they increase ! Were it 



