instances of failure could be easily multiplied. It is found, as with us, that one of the chief causes of non-success is the fact that the Government do not take sufficient steps to destroy the rabbits on unoccupied Crown lands. This foolish policy, of course, at once diminishes the letting value of the adjacent pastoral country--to such an extent, indeed, that instances have occurred in which 34,000 acres have been leased for £10 a year. Poison is regarded as the most destructive agent that can be employed, and it is especially effective when mixed with oats and wheat, a striking testimony to the value of Captain Raymond's discovery. Most of the witnesses examined were strongly of opinion that the Administration of the Rabbit Suppression Act should not be left to private and, perhaps, interested persons, as at present, but should be conducted by officers of the Government, probably the sheep inspectors, on a principle similar to that by which the scab was eradicated from the flocks of the colony. The joint committee adopted this view, and also recommended the Legislature to enact that all unoccupied Crown land, as well as all native, reserved, or private land, should bear a proportionate share of the cost of destroying the rabbits, and of administering the act. It is to be hoped that, in the midst of the party conflicts which have so impeded practical legislation this session, the Parliament will yet find time to give effect to the useful recommendations of the Rabbit Nuisance Committee."--_Australasian_, 10th September 1881. [192] Book xv. chap. i. § 37. [193] See Smith's _Dictionary of the Bible_, p. 145-47. Murray, 1863. [194] _Æneid_, Book vii. 561. [195] Non Arabum volucer serpens, innataque rubris Æquoribus custos pretiosæ vipera conchæ Aut viventis adhuc Lybici membrana cerastæ.-- _Pharsalia_, Book vi. 677. [196] The popular illustrations of the Story of the Black and White Snakes given by him, a favourite story among the Chinese, always represent them as winged. _Folk Lore of China_, N. P. Dennys, Ph.D. [197] Broderip, _Zoological Recreations_, p. 333. [198] Compare Shakspeare, "Peace, Kent. Come not between the Dragon and his wrath." [199] _Metamorphoses_, Book iii. 35, translated by H. J. Riley; London, 1872.