RABBITS. 103 



H. lutescens) are thickly dotted about the bare ground. Though 

 otherwise useless, these moss-like composite plants help to keep the 

 soil from being blown or washed away, and when old supply, in 

 the decayed centres of the patches, spots with some amount of humus 

 where grass-seeds can more readily settle arid grow." These plants 

 are never eaten by either sheep or rabbits. 



In regard to other native plants, rabbits have nearly extermi- 

 nated the wild spear-grasses (Aciphylla squarrosa and A. Colensoi), 

 which used to be so abundant. They particularly attack these 

 plants when the ground is covered with snow. Mr. Petrie, writing 

 me three years ago, said, " When I first visited inland Otago, in 

 1874, Aciphylla Colensoi was most abundant. In riding about it 

 was almost impossible to deviate from well-beaten tracks or roads 

 because the spines pricked the legs and feet of the horses." In 

 later years these plants have become rare. Captain Hutton, 

 writing me in March, 1892, said, "As to the extermination of the 

 wild-spaniards (Aciphylla}, I believe it to be due to rabbits. When 

 I was in the Nelson District in 187273 there were no rabbits on 

 the eastern side of the Upper Wairau near Tarndale, but they were 

 abundant on the western side. Spaniards were abundant on the 

 eastern side, but almost destroyed on the western. The rabbits 

 seemed to burrow under the plants, and then eat the roots." 



Several species of Celmisia (notably C. densiflora] have been 

 greatlv checked, and others are almost exterminated. Mr. B. C. 

 Aston, in his ascent of the Kaimanawas in 191415, found that 

 at a height of 4,200ft. Panax Colensoi was nearly exterminated by 

 rabbits, which had ring-barked all the young trees. This mischief 

 is done after heavy falls of snow, when the rabbits are driven down 

 from the tussock-land into the gullies of the scrub and forest zones. 

 Trees of Panax Edgerleyi from 19 ft. to 20 ft. high were found to 

 be ring-barked and dead. 



In a good many rabbit-infested districts, particularly in the 

 Nortli Island, these animals have aided very materially in pro- 

 ducing a certain amount of erosion and washing-down of alluvium 

 by burrowing extensively in the banks of rivers and small streams. 

 When floods came down, these undermined portions were commonly 

 swept away where the firmer banks resisted the impact of the 

 water. Dr. C. A. Cotton, of Wellington, considers that this action 

 has caused a slight rejuvenation of erosion in certain districts 



