1 () 1 WILD I.IFK IN NKW /KAI.AND. 



and river-systems. Cattle, sheep, and Croats assist iii tliis work, 

 Inir rabbits an- the most active agents in it. Tin- llev. A. Don, 

 writing to UK- in l!H)l. said. " The rabbits, by stripping the ground 

 of vegetation and burrowing into the fares of the slopes, are con- 

 verting what were once nice given hillsides into shingle slopes, 

 because when once the face is so bared and its sin-face broken it 

 begins to slip." Mi-. Petrie also refers to this process in his report. 

 as follows: 'The soil on the grass-denuded slopes, which is bv 

 no means infertile, being no longer held together by the roots of 

 plants, is being rapidly removed by wind and rain, and pebbles 

 and angular stones are now closely dotted over great stretches of 

 hillside that not many years ago were covered with soil. On the 

 steeper slopes, indeed, the soil is being rapidly sluiced down into 

 the gullies and thence into the river, and deep, narrow, chasm- 

 like watercourses are being dug out." 



I was at one time under the impression that in this new eountrv, 

 where the causes especially the natural enemies which kept them 

 in cheek in their original home were wanting, and there seemed 

 to be nothing to arrest their development in any direction, there 

 might arise new varieties of rabbits, with modified habits, struc- 

 ture, cVc. Particularly did it seem likely that colour variations 

 would thrive unchecked, and the. traveller passing through certain 

 districts in Otago is certainly surprised at the number of con- 

 spicuously coloured animals to be seen. I was down at Ifomahapa 

 recently and saw some rabbits at the edge of the bush, and among 

 a dozen of them there were some with white, buff, and black. 

 I was informed also that there are a number of them in the district 

 with a white ruff round the neck. Other observers bear me out 

 in the prevalence of coloured varieties among the wild rabbits. 

 Thus Mr. W. II. Cates. of Skipper's, a keen observer of nature, 

 writing me two years ago, said. " A< for colour, they are of all 

 colours grey-and-white, tan-and-white. grey with a black ridge 

 down the backbone, grey with a white ring round their necks, 

 cream with a darker shade down the backbone, and buff." Other 

 observers speak of ih. prevalence of black, black-and-white, and 

 vellow rabbits. (I rev is certainly the best colour to hide a rabbit 

 i.i sandv ground covered with somewhat dry herbage, and in a 

 district like Central Otago. where rabbits are as "thick as loco- 

 motives" as a certain (iaelic acquaint ance of mine with a limited 



