THE DISTRIBUTION OF SPECIES. 203 
looked with envy upon his rabbiters, who were heaping 
up modest fortunes, while he himself was slowly being 
eaten out of house and home. 
“ The professional rabbiter is not an agreeable com- 
panion. He is covered with the fluffy fur of his quarry 
until he bears much of the appearance of a mouldy 
cheese; his clothing is streaked with blood and dirt, 
and from his hair and beard, and, in fact, from his 
entire person, exhales a strong leporine odor. Not until 
he attains this consummation can he hope for the highest 
success in his profession, for the game on which he wars 
is gifted with keen sensibilities, and will avoid the trap 
or the fatal phosphorized grain that has been placed in 
its way by hands ordinarily clean. 
“The fecundity of the rabbit is amazing, and his 
invasion of remote districts swift and mysterious. 
Careful estimates show that, under favourable condi- 
tions, a pair of Australian rabbits will produce six 
litters a year, averaging five individuals each. As the 
offspring themselves begin breeding at the age of six 
months, it is shown that, at this rate, the original pair 
might be responsible in five years for a progeny of over 
twenty millions. That the original score that were 
brought to the country have propagated after some 
such ratio, no one can doubt who has seen the enormous 
hordes that now devastate the land in certain districts, 
In all but the remoter sections, however, the rabbits 
are now fairly under control; one rabbiter with a pack 
of dogs supervises stations where one hundred were 
employed ten years ago, and with ordinary vigilance 
the squatters have little to fear. Millions of the animals 
have been killed by fencing in the water holes and dams 
during a dry season, whereby they died of thirst, and 
lay in enormous piles against the obstructions they had 
frantically and vainly striven to climb, and poisoned 
