RABBITS AND WEASELS.

North Otago Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 6535, 28 December 1887, Page 3

RABBITS AND WEASELS.

(London Standard )

Two thouiand lire rabbits, It Is an nounced, are being despatobed to British Oolumba. When one rsads of folly like this, the question ia naturally suggested whether any man aver profits by the experience of his neighcor 1 Every one knowa what a pestilence ihia animal has prored ta Auatralli and New Zealand, and how, In spite of every effort to keep It in check, the nuisance still increases ao prodigiously that in many parts of those countries the land ia utterly useless onicsg to the herbage bein? eatan, and the ground b^l«*g honeycombed by the " furry folks," Y-at the British Columbian* I—or,1 — or, at all events, some British Columbian wiih less than iht? average wisdom of his fellow colonists— hsi th* audacity to Inflict on a prosperous seo'ion of Canada a plague which men still unborn will live to bitterly bewail. It is, of oourst, quite possible that the rabbiti are intended to be pl»oed on aome barran island, at a considerable diataitc9 from tb* mainland. But, even then, it will scarcely be possible to prevent them from straying beyond tbeir pristine limi s, Inoreaelng with amezing. rapidity, they will aoon spread over the country, a great portion of which is mill in a state of nature. Fattening on the abundant undergrowth of the woods whioh oovr ao large a section of tba region to the weat of the Cteoade Mountains, they will aoon establish themselves in a portion of North-West Amortaa, the climate of which ia, exoept in the extreme nortk and in part of the coamtry between the Rocky Mountains and the Caaoftde*, rnuoh milder than that of JCogland. If, however, the rabbits continued to feed on the aalal and huckleberry, or even to 6nd their pasture grounds on the grassy atripa by the aldee of the endless rivers and lakes, or in the fern covered prairies which are found here and there in the depths of the great fir forests, they would not be altogether harmless, since the soil would speedily get so honeycombed that that when the time arrived for it to come under the hand of the agriculturist it would be praotically worfble sa. It Is true that a large area both of British Columbia and Vancouver Island can never be cultivated or even used at grazing ground. Still, that will not prevent the rabbita from raidjng on the oorn and clover fields in the farming districts, or finding their way across the mountains into the Kootenay oountry, in order to share in, and eventually monopolise, the pasture of the cattle ranches, just as they have done Id Australia and New Zealand. Curiously enough, the same agent wbo is collecting this importation of four-foot *d colonists for British Columbia is also sending a small oargo of ferrets to New Zealand, to be followed up by another of stoats and weasels, in the hope that these fierce little carnivora will aid in the extermination of the rabbits which the Western Canadians are so rasMy going to the trouble of introducing. This, again, is a very dangerous experiment, though it haa for a time obtained the countenance of Government drives to its wita' end to find aome means of warring effectually with what is anquestionably tho moat serious plague of the islands. Iven admitting that these animals will prey on the rabbits — and the weasel, as • rule, prefers field mica, rats, and small birds — they may also develop a fondness for the jugulars of lamb*, kids, or even sheep, as unquestionably they will for fowU, eggs, and other dainties of the farmyord. Like the rabbits, they are-saf» to multiply at a rate unknown in the highly-cultivated land from which they have beeo brought, until In time it will be difficult to say wbieh is the greater p«»t, the rabbits or their en cm ieu. A swarm of weasels, stoats, and polecats covering the country is not a prospect to be thoughtlessly faced, though 10 grievous is the mischief they have in despair been called upon to remedy, that the Colonists are ready to take their chances. Acclimatisation has, in truth, not proved so pronounced a sucoass in the Antipodes that these new attempts can be regarded with a light heart,

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