HUNTING.
Hunting has been the most important factor in keeping down the numbers of rabbits in America. In some parts of the country the animals have been so reduced in numbers by shooting that sportsmen have invoked legislation to prevent their extermination. Shooting is undoubtedly the best method for hunting this animal. Ferreting is often impracticable, since our native rabbits do not habitually burrow; besides, the use of ferrets is forbidden by law in many States that protect the rabbit. Coursing with greyhounds is popular in the West, where the swifter jack rabbits are abundant. Cottontails are often chased with foxhounds, but the beagle is rapidly taking precedence as a favorite for hunting these animals, the gun being used to secure the game.
Where the country is sufficiently open for the purpose, the organized hunt, in which everyone who owns a gun is supposed to take part, is a good means of reducing the number of rabbits. These organized hunts are popular in the West, where they are also varied, in the case of jack rabbits, by what is known as the "rabbit drive." A large territory is surrounded by men and the animals are driven into a corral built of wire netting. While a few cottontails are sometimes included in the catch, these usually find refuge in open burrows or under cover of rocks or brush, so that this method is hardly applicable to them.
TRAPPING.
Rabbits are easily trapped or snared, and while these methods of taking them are slow, they are always feasible when cottontails infest woodlot, orchard, nursery, field, or garden. Many are caught in old-fashioned box traps set with a figure-4 trigger with cord attached to hold up the box lid.
An improvement on this familiar trap, widely used in the Middle West, and often called the Wellhouse[3] trap, is a box 21 inches long and about 6 inches high and 4 inches wide (inside measurements) made of 6-inch fence boards, preferably old ones. The box is closed at the rear and has a wire door in front which swings inward from the top, a cleat at the bottom preventing its opening outward. The trap is set and the wire door kept open by a wire trigger-rod held in place by two staples in the top of the box. The trigger-rod is bent downward into a loop or figure 8 near the rear of the trap. As the rabbit enters the trap and crowds into the back part it presses against the loop, moves the trigger-rod backward and is imprisoned as the wire door is released and falls. Bait may be used but is unnecessary, since cottontails frequently take refuge in dark places from enemies or inclement weather.
[3] After the late Mr. Fred Wellhouse, of Topeka, Kans.
Fig. 3.—Details of a Wellhouse rabbit trap.
The materials needed for making a Wellhouse trap are: Four boards 1 by 6, 21 inches long, for the sides; a piece 1 by 6, 8 inches long, for the back; a small cleat for the door stop; 28-1/2 inches of wire for the door; 22 inches of wire for the trigger; 4 small staples for hanging the door and trigger; and nails (fig. 3).