MAMMALIA 259 



may be 'used in damp weather as in the case of ground squirrels. Traps 

 may sometimes be used to advantage, either the ordinary steel trap, 

 buried in the floor of the main runway, or some form of the special 

 gopher traps that are on the market. In irrigated and other suitable 

 districts the burrows may be flooded with water and the gophers thus 

 run out of their holes can be readily killed with dogs, clubs, etc. 



Rodents as Food. As noted above, rabbits are extensively used as 

 food both in America and elsewhere and hence should not be entirely 

 exterminated since, in moderate numbers, they do little harm to the 



FIG. 166. Porcupine, Hystrix cristata. xKo- (From Jordan and Heath, Animal 



Forms, after Brehm.) 



farmer. The flesh of the jackrabbit, except the young, is not very 

 desirable but most of the rabbits furnish excellent food. In Australia 

 they were formerly, and probably are still, canned in large numbers 

 and exported. 



Squirrels are also extensively eaten, but owing to their smaller size 

 and less abundance, in most places, they are of less importance as an 

 article of food than rabbits. As noted above, the ground squirrels 

 are used for food and might be an important article of commerce but 

 for their connection with the bubonic plague. 



Muskrats, whose importance as fur-bearers has been mentioned in 

 connection with the carnivorous animals, to which group they do not, 



