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The Advertiser.
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 20, 1870.
It is rather superfluous to assert that
animal acclimatization in Australia is a
great fact, considering that every do- <*>
mestic creature we use for
food, draught,
pleasure, or ornament has had to be accli
matised. For many years, however, our
efforts in this direction did not go much
beyond what was forced upon us by ne
cessity. We were satisfied with repro
ducing the English animals that stocked
the stable, farmyard, and kennel, and the
tabbies or tortoiseshells that purred upon
the hearth.
The gamebirds and beasts of Britain and
other countries few thought of bringing to
these colonies, and those who made the
experiment were not rewarded with suc
cess. Neither, till of late years, did
Australians make much endeavor
to introduce useful animals from
other regions than Europe. Various
trials have in recent times been made
with the alpaca, but not often with
satisfactory results; and in exceptional
instances of success the experiments have
been upon too email a scale to be re
garded as conclusive. Camels appear to
thrive, and Angora goats increase and
multiply without showing signs of de
generating. There can be no doubt that
in large portions of this continent both
these animals will prove to be well suited
to the climate. When we come to wild
animals, however, the success of accli
matization has been much more marked.
The most noticeable case is to be found
in the rabbit, which in at least three of
these colonies is increasing by millions.
In fact " breeding like a rabbit" is a pro
verb that has an unpleasant significance
•with many squatters and farmers. In
Victoria hundreds of thousands have
been killed on a single estate in one year,
and in some places the sheep and cattle
are almost starved off the runs through
the destruction of the pasture by those
little animals. A sporting correspondent
of the Australasian states that in one
district runs have changed hands at half
their original value through this cause.
But Victoria is surpassed by Tasmania in
the enormous quantity of rabbits that
have spread over the island. An Ade
laide gentleman who recently visited that
colony said that half the island was over
run by rabbits, and the other half bj
deer. A farmer's crops are soon swept
away by the bunnies, and no doubt the
honest yoemen do not bless the day when
the rabbit was acclimatised. Even
sportsmen themselves grow weary of
them in Tasmania. They find them so
easily, and in such vast numbers, that
shooting becomes mere butchery, and
visitors, having once become accustomed
to this entertainment, can. hardly be
induced to repeat it. The very,
mention of rabbits nauseates them.
Anstxalian sportsmen, however, are some
what unreasonable, grumbling equally at
a feastor afast. Rabbits now seem likely
to become excessively plentiful in different •
parts of this colony. At Sturt Point, on
the property of Mr. Gollan, three sports
men in Christmas week loaded a spring
cart with these anim«.l? in one day, and
were obliged to carry a great many hang
ing outside. On some parts of Torke's
Peninsula they can, we believe, be found
in great numbers. At Anlaby they abound,
though thousands were destroyed by the
floods of February. To the eastward and
north-east they have firmly established
themselves in the Murray Scrub, and will
soon swarm over a vast extent of country.
There ace other localities where they can
be met with in sufficient numbers to
afford a fair day's sport. Doubtless in
some quarters they will be found a greater
nuisance than even the kangaroo has
been in the Soutu-East. If in England
on account of their rapid increase, not
withstanding the number of licensed
sportsmen slaughtering them every year,
it was found necessary to declare them
" vermin," what may we expect here with
our large area of country, extensive
tracts of forest and scrub, and Bmall
population ? It is worth noticing that
although many years passed before the
rabbit made much headway in. this colony
they increased in the islands about En
counter Bay, especially about Western
Island, where there was nothing to dis
turb them, whilst on the mainland they dis
appeared soon after they were turned loose.
The native dogs and cats were too much
for them, and not being the wild breed
of rabbit, they had not sufficient speed or
instinct to escape from their natural ene
mies. The dingo, however, is fast disap
pearing, and over a great portion of the
colony is already extinct, and the native
cats to a great extent have shared the
same fate. The rabbit too, in the course
of successive generations, has become
assimilated to the wild species. In all
probability many farmers will yet regard
the acclimatiser who first turned the
rabbit loose in the colo ny with feelings
similar to those they entertain towards
the gentleman who about a quarter of a
century ago sowed Scotch thistle seed on
the East Park Lands.
There are other kinds of game, how
ever, that we might introduce without
fear of working mischief. Hares are not
so prolific that their numbers cannot be
kept within bounds, and they would make
an acceptable addition to our stock of
wild animals. In Victoria they have
flourished, and it is already proposed to
establish a coursing club to hunt them,
the Acclimatization Society falling in with
the idea, provided the sport is carried on
under certain regulations that will pre
vent the increase of the n.?iimn.l« being
checked. Pheasants and partridges have
thriven in certain localities, and probably
we could obtain these descriptions of game
from the adjoining colony for the purpose
of turning them loose in suitable places.
The pheasant is already proved to be
suited to South Australia, Mr. Randall,
of Gumeracha, having considerable
numbers of them on his estate, and
they can often be seen crossing
the road. To acclimatise such animals j
in this country would be a real benefit. It j
would give variety to our diet, and an
immense diversion to those fond of rural ;
pastimes. The absence of game over a
large extent of our agricultural country is j
to be regretted. A South Australian |
farm, owing to the mode of cultivation
imposed by the seasons, is a somewhat
dreary spectacle, and the occupation of
farming is generally irksome to those who
are able to choose any other calling. Were
the pleasures usually accompanying rural
pursuits in Other countries to be found
here, agriculture and country life would
become more attractive; and such a
result is much to be desired. It would
be an advantage too for those who wish
the most thorough kind of relief from
the monotony and confinement of town
business, to be able to find sport without
going the great distances that now have
to be travelled before a shot at anything
bigger than a tomtit, or more wholesome
than an owl, can be met with. We should
not, however, acclimatise simply for utili
tarian purposes, or to afford the true
Briton the exquisite enjoyment of some
thing to kill. We trust that the attempts
to propagate many sorts of birds that will
give no temptation to the fowler, but will
make our woods and hedges melodious
will be continued, and that the day may
come when "there will be few parts of
South Australia where one cannot hear
the song of the nightingale, tile warbling
of the lark, or the sweet minstrelsy of
the thrush or the linnet.
$