July 3, 1896.] 



SCIENCE. 



23 



William T. Magruder, M. E., adjvmct 

 professor of mechanical engineering in Vander- 

 bilt University has resigned and has been 

 elected professor of mechanical engineering in 

 the Ohio State University. 



SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE. 

 The Jack Rabbits of the United States. By T. S. 

 Palmer, M. D., Assistant Chief of Division. 

 Bulletin No. 8, U. S. Department of Agricul- 

 ture, Division of Ornithology and Mammal- 

 ogy, Washington. Government Printing Of- 

 fice. 1896. 8vo., pp. 84, 6 pll. and frontis- 

 piece and 2 text figures. 



No jack rabbits are found in the United 

 States east of about the 95th meridian ; west of 

 this line they are of almost universal distribu- 

 tion, sometimes several species occurring over 

 the same area. They extend northward over 

 the plains of the Saskatchewan, and southward 

 into Mexico far beyond our southern border. 

 The extent of their abundance and the amount 

 of injury they are capable of doing to growing 

 crops is little known to the general public, out- 

 side of the jack rabbit area. In Bulletin No. 

 8, of the Division of Ornithology and Mammal- 

 ogy of the U. S. Department of Agriculture, a 

 vast amount of information is given on both 

 these points, both statistically and pictorially. 

 Dr. Palmer having treated his subject with 

 great thoroughness, and in a way at once inter- 

 esting to the naturalist and the general reader. 

 The matter is non-technical and relates to the 

 habits and distribution of the five or six species 

 (no attempt is made to discriminate the sub- 

 species) found in the United States, including 

 their abundance and rapidity of increase ; their 

 injury to crops and the means of protection 

 against them, and the methods of destruction 

 employed to reduce their numbers. There is 

 also a chapter on 'Rabbit Drives and Hunts, ' and 

 another on the value of jack rabbits as game. 

 In respect to the abundance of these animals 

 over certain areas. Dr. Palmer gives some strik- 

 ing statistics. For instance, he states that in 

 Modoc county, California, ' nearly 25,000 jack 

 rabbits were said to have been killed in three 

 months on a tract of land only six by eight 

 miles in extent.' "A still more remarkable 

 case has been recorded in the San Joaquin Val- 



ley. Some of the early drives near Bakersfield 

 took place on a ranch less than one square mile 

 in extent. In the first drive, on the afternoon 

 of January 2, 1888, 1,126 rabbits were killed; 

 as soon as the animals were dispatched, the 

 same field was passed over again and 796 more 

 killed. A week later, on January 10th, there 

 were two drives on the same ground, the first 

 resulting in the destruction of 2,000 rabbits, 

 the second in more than 3,000; in the latter an 

 adjoining field was also driven over. It was 

 estimated that altogether about 8,000 rabbits 

 were killed on this ranch in nine days. The 

 ' Kern County Echo ' of March (8 ?) 1888, stated 

 that a total of about 40,000 rabbits had been 

 killed in the drives about Bakersfield from Jan- 

 uary 1, 1888, up to that date, and referred to 

 an estimate that two-thirds of the rabbits 

 killed in the drives were females and the aver- 

 age number of young of each of these was 3^. 

 On this basis it was computed that had these 

 40,000 rabbits lived two months they would 

 have increased to 135,000. When it is con- 

 sidered how much injury a single rabbit can do, 

 the damage which such an army of rabbits is 

 capable of inflicting would hardly be less than 

 that caused by a grasshopper plague." In an- 

 other place Dr. Palmer states that ' ' it has been 

 estimated that five jack rabbits consume as 

 much as one sheep." 



As means of protection rabbit-proof wire fences 

 are sometimes resorted to, and poisons are occa- 

 sionally used to reduce the number of rabbits ; 

 many are also shot, but the chief dependence is 

 wholesale destruction by drives. These are de- 

 scribed at length, and illustrated by cuts and 

 some striking reproductions of photographs of 

 some of the remarkably efl^ective drives made 

 about Fresno, in California, where in one in- 

 stance 20,000 rabbits were killed in a single 

 drive. In the larger drives hundreds of men 

 and boys participate, some on foot but many on 

 horses. It is said that in one drive near Fresno, 

 resulting in the death of 15,000 rabbits, 2,000 

 horsemen took part. A list of 155 rabbit drives 

 in California is given, with a map showing their 

 location. These drives resulted in the destruc- 

 tion of nearly 400,000 rabbits during a period of 

 about eight years. • Lists of drives made in Ore- 

 gon, Utah, Idaho and Colorado are also given. 



