52 JACK RABBITS OF THE UNITED STATES. 



taken place in the sonthern part of the San Joaquin Yalley. Data are 

 available for only a few drives east of the Sierra Nevada, one being 

 the Indian hunt already mentioned, which took place in 1866, near 

 Bishop, Inyo County, and the others in Modoc County in the extreme 

 northeastern corner of the State — in Surprise Yalley, just east of the 

 Warner Mountains, and near Likely, on the South Fork of Pitt River. 

 It may also be noticed that the drive at Claremont, Los Angeles County, 

 is the only one which has occurred at a point well within the range of 

 Lepus californicKS, and although it resulted in the destruction of only 

 about a hundred rabbits is especially interesting, as it seems to be 

 one of the few drives in which the California Jack Rabbit alone was 

 killed. All the large drives have been made in localities where the 

 Texan Jack Rabbit is the predominant if not the only species. The 

 largest drives have occurred in the vicinity of Bakerstield and Fresno. 

 They usually extend over considerable country, and one of the Fresno 

 drives has been described by Mr. Charles H. Townsend, in which nearly 

 2,000 horsenien took part. This hunt covered some 20 square miles, 

 and about 15,000 rabbits wore driven into a central corral and killed. 

 (Forest and Stream, XXXVIII, March 3, 1892, p. 107.) 



ORIGIN OK TllK URIVKS. 



The feasibility of driving jack rabbits into a corral for wholesale 

 destruction was cU'iuonstrated al)out twenty years ago; but rabbit driv- 

 ing as now carried on, began within the last decade. At first tlio ani- 

 mals were shot instead of being killed witli clubs, and these hunts were 

 known as shotgun drives. 



Mr. George W. Stewart, editor of the Visalia Delta, lias kindly con- 

 tributed the following notes concerning the early drives in California: 



The first rabbit drive in the San .loaiiniu Valley, ami probably in the State, 

 occurred in the year 1875. The firm of Hagfjin & Carr had begun to farm a large 

 body of land in Kern Conijty, at the southern end of the San .loaiiuin Valley, which 

 up to that time had been used only as a cattle range. The manager, a Mr. Souther, 

 was mueh annoyed by the ravages of thousands of jack rabbits on what is known 

 as Keni Island [a tract of land about 15 miles long] formed at that time by branches 

 of Kern River. Mr. Souther eolleeted a large number of his vaqueros and other 

 ranch hands, and these men, mouuteil and on foot, surrounded ;i large territory and 

 gradually closed their lines toward a large cattle corral, into which the rabbits 

 were driven. Many rabbits escaped through the line, but the result of this lirst 

 drive was 1,200 rabbits and 2 coyotes. • • • 



The next great .slaughter of jack rabbits occurred eleven years later near Han- 

 ford, now the county seat of Kings County. Notice liad been given beforehand, and 

 on March '^, 18X(i, about 250 men fntm Hanford and the adjacent country, armed with 

 shotguns (ritles and i)istols were barretl ), surrounded a large area of country (5 miles 

 south of the town. As the circumference of ihe circle gradually lessened, the 

 shooting commenced, and when less than a mile in diameter tlie firing was incessant, 

 the continuous discharge making the noise of a small battle. When the last jack 

 rabbit had been shot the army halted for a lunch. A number of men lja<l shot as 

 many as 50 rabbits each, and it was estimated that 3,000 had been slain. In the 

 afternoon a fresh supply of ammunition was secured and another smaller tract of 



