FAUNA IN HONGKONG.
CONTINUATION.
Apart from the reference to the exclusion of the general public from Stonecutters, a restriction operating until to-day there is the interesting evidence that rabbits had lived there for some time. It seems obvious that the animals could not multiply here in a wild state: the climate (excessively damp in summer) and the number of large snakes, as well as the difficulty of protecting them from genus homo, is against that. I did hear a few years ago, that somebody had seen rabbits or what looked like them, on the hillside above Aberdeen village towards dusk. That was never followed up with sufficient proof: and none of our local naturalists report wild rabbits from the Colony so we may assume that if bunnies were ever released in the vicinity, they have all died out long since. Incidentally partridges are being protected in the Botanical and Forestry Department's reserve at Shek-O- and this action is to be commended.
The reference to Mr. Ryrie deserves a fuller comment in a further article, for Mr. Phineas Ryrie, was a well-known Hongkong personage of this time.
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