The dingo, or wild dog, may not be an especially interesting animal to the student of natural history, but it is a very interesting one to the herdsman. For of all animals in Australia the dingo is the most intolerable nuisance on account of its fondness for mutton. Hunting the coyote on the plains of the United States is a pastime, but hunting the Australian dingo is a serious and monotonous business. Indeed, the sheep and the dingo cannot both remain in Australia unless the former has been eaten by the latter. In a single night a dingo will kill a score of sheep, and a pack of them will make way with several hundred. In one instance two of these pests killed and maimed more than four hundred sheep before retribution overtook them. In addition to the troubles of native origin, three very serious pests have been imported. One of these, the species of cactus known as the prickly pear, the Queenslander has pretty nearly all to himself. Just how the prickly pear was introduced into Australia seems to be a matter of uncertainty. But it is there and it is spreading rapidly. Each plant produces scores of pears and each pear contains not far from one hundred seeds. When the fruit ripens the seeds are quickly sent broadcast. Perhaps the wind is the chief agent in scattering them, but wild birds, especially the emeu and the turkey, are a good second. Queenslanders fear that this pernicious plant will spread not only over the great interior desert sections, but to the valuable land elsewhere, since it is tenacious of life and thrives on arid land amidst a burning heat where other plants wither up and perish. In clearing the land of the cactus three methods are utilized, viz., burning, pitting, and poisoning. Where wood is near at hand, the first method is the preferable one. A platform is made by rolling logs together, and after the plants have been uprooted and hacked to pieces they are hauled in drays to the platforms. There they are stacked up high, sometimes a hundred tons being piled on a single platform, and the platforms are set afire. Pitting is done by digging large, deep pits, filling them full of the chopped plants, and covering them with dirt. Destruction by poisoning is accomplished by inoculating the thick leaves with arsenic or bluestone, which is sprayed upon them after the plants have been hacked so that the poison may be absorbed by the sap, which distributes the deadly substance. Years ago some of the colonists thought that it would be desirable to have English rabbits in Australia and sent to England for a few pairs. When the rabbits arrived a great feast was held, and amidst speeches and mutual congratulations the timid creatures were let loose. In a short time rabbits seemed quite plentiful and the hunters had rare sport; but ere long the animals began to eat up the vegetables in the gardens.