302 ECONOMIC MAMMALOGY 



There were 3,713,036 white hare skins reported as sold in the world's 

 markets in 1 9 19- 192 1. 42 In 1928, 100,000,000 rabbit skins were im- 

 ported to the United States, 40 per cent for fur garments, 50 per cent 

 used in the manufacture of felt hats. 43 



Chinchilla rabbits have often been confused with Chinchilla lanigera, 

 a small very different South American rodent, which has a fine fur. 

 This has led to a very much exaggerated idea of the value of the 

 chinchilla rabbits as fur-bearers. Their furs are more attractive than 

 those of most other rabbits, but prices do not justify raising them for 

 the fur alone, though they may be profitably bred for both meat and 

 fur, as with other rabbits. 44 



Not only do rabbit skins form an important item in the world's fur 

 sales, but they also affect the fur trade indirectly, "as a source of sus- 

 tenance for various fur-bearing animals, as when these [varying] 

 hares are plentiful, meat-eating fur-bearers are also plentiful. In order 

 to show just how important it is to the fur trade, the following figures 

 may be of interest. In the winters of 1905-1906 and 1906-1907, when 

 hares were very abundant, I bought at Pembina River 860 and 980 

 lynx skins. In the spring of 1907 the hares died off and in the season 

 of 1907-1908 I received only 40 lynx skins from the same territory." 45 

 Canadian trappers recognize the dependence of the fur catch upon 

 the relative abundance of rabbits and mice. 



The meat of rabbits is also valuable. In 1918, 465,000 cottontail 

 rabbits were killed in the State of New York; 2,700,000 killed in 

 Pennsylvania in 1919 and 5,000,000 in 1921, furnishing 14,250,000 

 pounds of meat; 293,625 in Virginia in 1920, 332,000 in 1922; proba- 

 bly 25,000,000 killed annually in the United States, which, at 20 cents 

 each, are worth $5,000,000 for their meat alone. 46 Over $1,000,000 

 worth of rabbit meat was sold in Los Angeles in I928. 47 Missouri 

 shipped to the nation's markets, for the Christmas trade of 1928, over 

 3,500,000 rabbits, worth $45o,ooo. 48 Set-on intimates that the meat 

 of cottontail rabbits in the United States reaches a value of $25,000,000 



42 O shorn and Anthony, Journ. Mammalogy, in, 226, 1922; Natural History, xxn, 

 393, 1922. 



43 Ashbrook, Fur farming for profit, p. 4, 1928. 



44 Green, Chinchilla rabbits for food and fur, U. S. Biol. Surv. Leaflet No. 22, 

 1928. Science, LIII, 387, 1921. 



45 A. D. Henderson, Journ. Mammalogy, iv, 264-265, 1923. 



46 Palmer, Game as a national resource, U. S. Dept. Agric. Bull. No. 1049, 1922. 

 Adams, Roosevelt Wild Life Bull., in, 551, 1926. 



47 Ashbrook, Fur farming for profit, p. 219, 1928. 



48 Missouri Fish and Game Neivs, v, No. i, 1929. California Fish and Game, xv, 

 181, 1929. 



