246 



GNAWING ANIMALS 



In 1850 a gentleman set half a dozen Rabbits at liberty 

 in New South Wales. Long before the end of the century 

 the south-east of Australia was suffering from a Rabbit 

 plague. Weasels and mongooses were introduced to check 

 the pest ; but while they had little or no effect upon the 

 Rodents, they played sad havoc in the hen-roosts of the 

 colonists, not proving a cure, but rather an additional 

 nuisance. Attempts to exterminate the Rabbits by infecting 

 them with disease germs had to be abandoned, because 

 some of the domestic animals were liable to infection. 

 Some areas had to be given over altogether to the Rabbit, 

 and everywhere cultivated tracts had to be protected by 



rabbit - proof wire 

 fencing. New Zea- 

 landers met with the 

 same troublesome 

 experience. 



Nowadays we hear 

 less of the Rabbit 

 pest, but we do know 

 that New South 

 Wales and Victoria, 

 in a single year, ex- 

 port to the Mother 

 Country twenty 

 millions of Rabbits, 

 frozen or tinned, 



worth nearly half a million sterling, together with myriads 

 of skins for manufacturing purposes. New Zealand sends 

 Rabbits for our dinner tables to the value of a quarter of a 

 million pounds, as well as immense quantities of skins. It 

 is not always that a plague can be turned to such a golden 

 account. 



The flesh of the Rabbit is good and acceptable food, 

 and enormous quantities come into the British market in 

 addition to the supplies of the home animal. The sandy 

 shores of Ostend, for example, afford a fine breeding- 

 ground for a large-sized variety, which is exported to 

 England at the rate of several hundreds of tons per week. 

 Rabbit skins are of great commercial value, for they can 



SKELETON OF THE RABBIT. 

 (About one-sixth natural size.) 



