156 WILD LIFE CONSERVATION 



"The inhabitants of Australia," says Dr. Lydek- 

 ker, "soon found that the rabbits were a plague, for 

 they devoured the grass, which was needed for the 

 sheep, the bark of the trees and every kind of fruit 

 and vegetable, until the prospects of the colony 

 became a very serious matter, and ruin seemed 

 inevitable. From New South Wales upwards of 

 15,000,000 rabbit skins have been exported in a 

 single year, while in thirteen years ending with 

 1889, no less than 39,000,000 were accounted for in 

 Victoria alone. 



"To prevent the increase of these rodents, the 

 introduction of weasels, stoats, mongooses, etc., has 

 been tried; but those carnivores neglected the 

 rabbits and took to feeding on poultry, and thus 

 became as great a nuisance as the rabbits them- 

 selves. An attempt to kill the rabbits by an epi- 

 demic disease also failed. Wire fences, sometimes 

 150 miles long, have been erected to bar rabbits 

 from new territory." 



In New Zealand the increase of rabbits in twenty 

 years has been so enormous that in some districts 

 it has become a question whether the colonists 

 should not vacate the country rather than attempt 

 to fight the plague. But the fur trade now raises 

 the star of hope in Australia. Rabbit fur is now in 

 so great demand that about twenty million rabbit 

 skins are annually exported from that continent to 

 Europe. Rabbit fur is now dyed and sold by fur- 

 riers under the following trade names : seal, electric 



