NOTES AND QUERIES. 235 



carry off great numbers, and yet, notwithstanding all this, " still they 

 come." They are regarded by the settlers as a great curse, as they 

 eat up the grass that is intended for the Sheep. Not only do they eat 

 the blades of grass, but in many parts they scrape out every vestige of 

 a root, leaving the plains for many miles nothing but loose black soil, 

 to be piled into hummocks or hollowed out by every wind-storm. How- 

 ever, grass is not the only thing that Rabbits will eat, and at times 

 every green thing — and withal many things that are not green — are 

 consumed by them. In support of this, I was recently shown (by a 

 botanical friend) a photograph taken in some " mallee country" out 

 west, depicting a piece of mallee-scrub (Eucalyptus of species). All 

 the trees shown in the photo, and many thousands of acres besides, had 

 been ring-barked by the Kabbits from beneath the surface of the soil 

 up to as high as a " bunny " can reach, and in certain instances where 

 the tree-trunk was in an oblique position every sign of bark had been 

 removed for some distance from the ground. However, the Rabbits 

 are not having it entirely their own way, as some of them are turned 

 to good account, great and increasing quantities being exported every 

 year (last year, 1902, it ran into many millions), besides what are con- 

 sumed locally. In the Rabbit-infested country, beside the Sheep-runs, 

 miles upon miles of railway are enclosed with Rabbit-proof netting so 

 as to hinder, if not entirely prevent, the " bunnies" from migrating 

 from one part to the other. 



Hares are also abundant, though not nearly so as the preceding. 

 During the year 1899 close upon 500,000 scalps of these animals were 

 brought to, and capitation fee paid by, the Stock Department of New 

 South Wales alone. English Foxes, too, are becoming rather painfully 

 common in many parts of the country. Many complaints have been 

 made regarding " Reynard's" depredations among the lambs, and the 

 pest — for such they have become — appears to be spreading throughout 

 the country to a most undesirable extent. In one case it was stated 

 that the shepherds had to surround the Sheep with a ring of fire at 

 night to protect them from the Foxes. Those animals, after killing 

 the lambs, tear out and devour the tongue only, leaving the remainder 

 of the body to rot. It is said that some flock-owners have lost as many 

 as 20 and 30 per cent, of their lambs recently from this cause alone. 

 This country being largely a Sheep-growing one, all things that are 

 detrimental to Sheep are regarded as curses. Our poor harmless and 

 interesting indigens, because they eat grass — that most valuable of 

 substances — have to go. So, to compass the destruction of these 

 creatures, large " drives " are occasionally organized, at which at times 

 many thousands of marsupials of various kinds are annihilated ; and 



