THE ZOOLOGIST. 



THIRD SERIES. 



Vol. XII.] SEPTEMBER, 1888. [No. 141. 



THE RABBIT PEST AT THE ANTIPODES, AND THE 

 REMEDY PROPOSED BY M. PASTEUR. 



The influence of small mammals upon agriculture and 

 arboriculture is a subject of much importance, and one upon 

 which, from time to time, a good deal has been written. These 

 creatures affect our interests in various ways : some are bene- 

 ficial, others so injurious that the only question is how to keep 

 down their numbers; while of those which possess both good 

 and bad qualities a close observation of their habits is necessary 

 before we can decide whether, on the whole, they are beneficial 

 to man or the contrary. 



Dr. Hart Merriam, in his Report to the Department of 

 Agriculture, Washington, for the year 1886, referring to the 

 effects of mammals upon agriculture, particularly mentions the 

 hordes of mice which periodically overrun the country from 

 the Atlantic to the Pacific, and from the Mexican border to 

 Canada, doing an amount of damage which in the aggregate 

 must amount to several millions of dollars a-year. In the 

 meadow and pasture they feed upon the roots of the best 

 grasses ; in the garden upon the roots, fruit, and seeds of 

 vegetables ; and in the fields upon grain, both standing and in 

 the shock. In winter they destroy fruit and forest trees and 

 ornamental shrubs by eating the bark from the roots and trunk. 

 The number of Meadow Mice distributed over a given area is 

 subject to periodical fluctuations, and they sometimes become 

 enormously abundant. At such times, says Dr. Hart Merriam, 



ZOOLOGIbT. — SEPT. DSStS. 2 C 



