58 



JACK RABBITS OF THE UNITED STATES. 



rabbit (biviiig and the effect of this means of extermiuatiou. The gen- 

 eral results may be tabulated as follows : 



Summarij of California liabbit Drives. 



Number of drives. 



Rabbits killed .... 



Average n u m b e r 



jier drive 



Total. 



155 

 370, 195 



2,387 



* Returns incomplete; 4 drives reported but figures given for only 1. 



An examination of tliese figures shows that in the total of 155 drives 

 370,195 rabbits were killed, or an average of nearly 2,400 in each drive. 

 Eeturns for years jDrevious to 1888 have been received for only 4 drives 

 in which 8,200 rabbits were killed, but during the si)ring of 1888 the 

 number of drives suddenly increased to 55, and then, as the novelty wore 

 off or the rabbits became scarcer, decreased to 7. During the same 

 period the number of rabbits slaughtered decreased from nearly 100,000 

 in 1888 to 14,500 in 1891. In 1892 there were a few more drives and a 

 decided increase in the slaughter of rabbits, due to the large drives in 

 Fresno County. The total of 65,000 rabbits was second only to that of 

 the season of 1888, but in the last three years there has been a decided 

 falling off in the totals. The apparent increase in the number of drives 

 in 1893 and 1894 is due in part to the small hunts in Modoc County, but 

 the number in the San Joaquin Valley has continued to decline regularly 

 until 1895, when only 12 small drives were reported. 



The largest number of rabbits killed in any single drive is said to 

 have been 20,000, but the average of all the drives for any one year has 

 varied from 5,400 down to 930 the past season. By far the greater 

 number have been killed in the southern part of the San Joaquin Valley 

 in a strip about 170 miles in length and 30 miles in width. If the small 

 drives in the northern part of the State and the single one in Los 

 Angeles County are omitted, as well as the two early shotgun drives, 

 the result is reduced to about 356,400 rabbits killed in 140 drives during 

 eight years, or an average annual slaughter of about 44,500 rabbits in 

 an area scarcely as large as the States of Connecticut and Ehode Island 

 combined. Tlie success of the drives is evident from the small number 

 of rabbits killed during the last three years. This result, at least in 

 Fresno County, is probably due in i)art to the appearance of an epidemic 

 among the jack rabbits soon after the large drives of 1892. One cor- 

 respondent writes from Selma : '' Just as it had been found possible to 

 control their presence in the more thickly settled part [of Fresno 

 County] an epidemic appeared among them and they died by hundreds 

 and by thousands. * * * Since then we have kept a few dogs and 

 the wire screen fences have been gradually taken down, and now very 

 few rabbits are to be found among the vines." 



