RABBIT DRIVES IN OREGON. 



59 



Whether the present diininution in uumbers is only temporary re- 

 mains to be seen, but this section of California is now being settled so 

 fast that it seems hardly possible for the rabbits to increase to their 

 former abundance under all the forms of destruction which can be used 

 against them. The case is instructive in showing the combined effect 

 of natural and other means of extermination. If rabbits could be sys- 

 tematically destroyed just after their luimbers had been reduced by an 

 epidemic, they would receive a setback from which they would not soon 

 recover. 



The decline of rabbit driving is hardly to be deplored. In the San 

 Joaquin Valley a drive was made the occasion of a general holiday; the 

 schools were closed and women and (children joined the throng to assist 

 in clubbing the rabbits or to watch the slaughter. It may be ques- 

 tioned whether such frequent scenes of butchery can have anything 

 but an injurious effect on a community, and it is fortunate that the 

 necessity for them does not now exist. 



OREGON. 



In Oregon the California method of destroying rabbits by drives has 

 been recently introduced. Throughout the region east of the Cascades 

 the black-tailed Texan Jack Rabbit {Lejms texianus) is very abundant 

 and has become so troublesome in Lake County that $2,160 was ex- 

 pended for its destruction during the years ISSS, 1889, and 1890, 

 More than a dozen drives w^ere made in December 1894, and January 

 1895, in the vicinity of Lakeview, In one of these, which took place 

 on January G, 1,975 rabbits were killed, Avhile the total number slaugh- 

 tered during the two months amounted to 12,202, Several drives, 

 resulting in the destruction of ;>,000 to 4,000 rabbits, have occurred 

 during the winter of 1895-9(), l)ut in the absence of any detailed report 

 they have not been included in the following table. 



Partial JAst of Rabbit Drives in Oregon. 



