RODENTIA 299 



ranch would eat as much as 100 sheep. 17 The damage done to the cotton 

 crop by rabbits in Midland County, Texas, was estimated at $95,ooo. 18 

 In 1916 cottontails and jack rabbits destroyed the entire crop in some 

 fields in San Diego County, California. 19 The Macfarlane snowshoe 

 rabbits (Lepus americamis macfarlani) "feed mostly on the bark and 

 small twigs of willow and paper birch, but in winter hunger sometimes 

 drives them to eat alder and spruce." 20 Two coast swamp rabbits 

 (Sylvilagus aquaticus littoralis) in captivity ate an average of grass 

 equivalent to 42.2 per cent of their own weight daily. 21 



European hares (Lepus europaeus) were liberated in New York and 

 Ontario many years ago, for sport, and have spread into Vermont, 

 Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and probably 

 other states. They damage orchards, small fruit bushes, shade trees 

 and ornamental shrubbery, in winter when other food is scarce. The 

 damage to orchards in one county alone in the winter of 1915-1916 

 amounted to $ioo,ooo. 22 These hares in the San Juan Islands have 

 barked trees, destroyed other vegetation and done considerable dam- 

 age by burrowing, undermining some government buildings. 23 Intro- 

 duced into Australia, where they had no natural enemies, rabbits in- 

 creased rapidly, and in ten years, from 1878 to 1888, did damage to 

 the extent of $i5,ooo,ooo. 24 Because of the damage by the plague of 

 rabbits to the food for sheep, the number of sheep in New South 

 Wales was reduced from 60,000,000 in 1893 to 32,000,000 in I923. 25 

 In addition to the direct damage, millions of dollars have been spent 

 in the destruction of rabbits and in the construction of rabbit-proof 

 fences to prevent their ravages. 



Though it is usually considered that hares and rabbits are strictly 

 vegetarian in habit, Soper says that snowshoe rabbits often spring 

 traps set for valuable fur-bearers, by "tampering with meat baits," 



17 Bailey, N. Amer. Fauna, No. 25, pp. 152-155, 1905. 



18 Science, LXIX, 378, 1929. 



19 Bryant, Rabbits damage crops in San Diego County, California Fish and Game, 

 n, 215-218, 1916. 



20 Dice, Notes on the mammals of interior Alaska, Journ. Mammalogy, n, 20-28, 

 1921. 



21 Svihla, Habits of Sylvilagus aquaticus littoralis, Journ. Mammalogy, x, 315- 

 319, 1929- 



22 Silver, The European hare (Lepus europaeus Pallas) in North America, Journ. 

 Agric. Research, xxvin, 1135-1137, 1924. 



28 Couch, Introduced European rabbits in the San Juan Islands, Washington, 

 Journ. Mammalogy, x, 334-336, 1929. 



24 Palmer, U. S. Biol. Surv. Bull. No. 8, p. 32, 1897. 



25 Nature, cxn, 553, 1923. See also Beal, Yearbook U. S. Dept. Agric. for 1900, 

 p. 300. 



