BABBIT. 283 



It is said that Is. 3d. is the price for killing a Eabbit 

 in Australia, and 690 persons are said to be engaged in 

 this way. Sums of ^640,000 and £50,000 have been 

 paid annually to exterminate them, and matters have 

 become so serious that a Eabbit Department has been 

 for some years in existence in the colony. In 1887, 

 the sum of £25,000 was offered by the Government of 

 New South "Wales for any method for the effectual 

 extermination of Babbits not previously known. 1,400 

 schemes were brought out, but none seem to have met 

 with success. 



Weasels, Stoats, and Cats have been imported at 

 considerable expense, but with no permanent benefit. 

 Mr. Pasteur suggested the plan of spreading chicken 

 cholera among the Babbits, but on experimenting it was 

 found that the infection did not spread to other animals. 

 A recent effort has been made to reduce the numbers 

 by suffocating ' them in their holes with gas, and 

 bisulphide of carbon has also been tried. A plan that 

 has been attempted with a certain amount of success, 

 is to kill the does, and liberate the bucks, the latter 

 then fighting together, and killing one another. Wire- 

 netting fences seems to be the best remedy. It is said 

 that Australian Babbits have recently developed the 

 power of climbing trees, and of making their nests in 

 shrubs, and ^;he claws are said to have become longer 

 and more slender. 



New Zealand produces skins of good quahty, but the 

 fur of Tasmanian and Australian skins is much inferior 

 to English and Scotch. The hair on the back has 

 become much darker in most districts, but the general 

 colour is lighter, and the skin much thinner than the 

 English Eabbit. 



The majority of Australian skins are used for felting. 



