236 ANIMALS OF THE PAST 
eighteen months the State was called upon to a 
pay out $187,485. As a result of the waron 
coyotes the animals on which they fed, notably — 
the rabbits, increased so enormously that in q| 
turn a bounty was put on rabbits, the damage — 
these animals caused the fruit-growers being : 
greater than the losses among sheep-owners — 
from the depredations of coyotes. And so, — 
says Dr. Palmer, “In this remarkable case. 
of legislation a large bounty was offered by a — 
county in the interest of fruit-growers to coun- ; 
teract the effects of a State bounty expended | 
mainly for the benefit of sheep-owners !” 
Professor Shaler, in noting the sudden dis- 4 
appearance of such trees as the gums, magno- _ 
lias, and tulip poplars from the Miocene flora — 
of Europe has suggested that this may have P 
been due to the attacks, for a series of years, : 
of some insect enemy like the gipsy moth, and — 
the theory is worth considering, although it — 
must be looked upon as a possibility rather ~ 
than a probability. Still, anyone familiar with — ‘ 
the ravages of the gipsy moth in Massachu- — 
setts, where the insect was introduced by ac- j 
cident, can readily imagine what might have — 
a by a a= al 
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