126 RABBITS, CATS, AND CAVIES 



expense of these warreners. There were seven of these 

 officials, with dogs and implements in abundance. Besides 

 wages they were allowed all the rabbits they could eat, and 

 bread, bacon, vegetables, beer, etc., from the farm-house 

 to be consumed in their huts on the warren, where they 

 cooked, in hermit-like solitude, for themselves. During 

 the killing season they worked in the night, finishing off 

 at about two in the morning. This took place every 

 night except Sundays. The catch was immediately 

 " hulked," or disembowelled, coupled and then sent off to 

 London in regular vans. During the day false burrows 

 are dug in the portion of the warren to be worked in the 

 evening, which was afterwards partially encircled with a 

 net. When the rabbits came out to feed they were driven 

 by dogs and beaters into the enclosure. 



Taking refuge by droves in the false burrows, they 

 were easily caught by the men, those that escaped them 

 being intercepted by the net. 



One bright moonlight night, when we witnessed the 

 chase, 200 couple were taken. The dogs not being 

 allowed to touch them, very few rabbits indeed were 

 mangled or torn ; stretching their necks was the mode of 

 death. 



I am very pleased to see the enclosed in a recent issue 

 of the Adelaide Advertiser , but it has always greatly sur- 

 prised me that such progressive and intelligent people as 

 our Australian cousins have long proved themselves to 

 be, should have wasted so much time and money in the 

 endeavour to extirpate rabbits in their continent, when, 

 by making proper arrangements for the distribution of 



