THE LIBRARY

OF

THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA

LOS ANGELES

BY THE SAME AUTHOR

THE FERNS AND FERN ALLIES OF NEW ZEALAND. MELBOURNE, 1882 OUT OF PRINT

INTRODUCTORY CLASS-BOOK OF BOTANY. WELLINGTON, 1891; SECOND EDITION, WELLINGTON, 1906

A NEW ZEALAND NATURALISTS' CALEN- DAR. DUNEDIN, 1909

WILD LIFE IN NEW ZEALAND : MAMMALIA. BOARD OF SCIENCE AND ART, MANUAL No. 2. WELLINGTON, 1921

HISTORY OF THE PORTOBELLO MARINE FISH-HATCHERY AND BIOLOGICAL STA- TION. BOARD OF SCIENCE AND ART, BULLETIN No. 2. WELLINGTON, 1921

THE

NATURALISATION

OF

ANIMALS & PLANTS IN NEW ZEALAND

CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS

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ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

THE

NATURALISATION

OF

ANIMALS & PLANTS

IN NEW ZEALAND

BY

HON. GEO. M. THOMSON

M.L.C., F.L.S., F.N.Z.INST.

CAMBRIDGE

AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS 1922

IN MEMORY

OF

MY YOUNGEST SON JOHN HENRY THOMSON

WHO GAVE HIS LIFE IN THE SERVICE OF THE EMPIRE, AND AFTER THREE AND A HALF YEARS OF ACTIVE SERVICE IN GALLIPOLI AND FRANCE, DIED ON 5 APRIL, 1918

HIS BODY WAS LAID NEAR DOULLENS IN FRANCE

HIS SOUL IS WITH HIS GOD

PREFACE

A HISTORICAL account of the introduced animals and plants of New Zealand has long been a felt want in this country. Changes had been going on for the last century and a half, but records and references to these changes were much scattered, and it was very difficult for many persons interested in the natural history of the country to acquire any exact knowledge of the subject. This has been one of the reasons which induced me to accumulate the facts recorded here. The work has led me into a very large correspondence, but I have been gratified by the interest manifested by those appealed to, and by their readiness to assist me. The whole question of naturalisa- tion appeals to most intelligent persons, and my efforts to elicit in- formation have been most pleasantly received, and readily seconded on all sides.

To secure accuracy as far as possible, especially in connection with those groups of animals and plants with which my acquaintance was very imperfect, I sought and most ungrudgingly received the cooperation of local specialists, and I desire here to acknowledge my deep debt of gratitude to these gentlemen, who have checked my lists and supplied me with many of the facts recorded. They include the late Major Broun of Auckland who went over the Coleoptera ; Messrs G. V. Hudson of Wellington, A. Philpott of Invercargill, G. Howes of Dunedin, and D. Miller, Government Entomologist, who dealt with Insecta generally, and the last-named especially with the Diptera ; Mr G. Brittin, late of Christchurch, the Coccidae ; Dr Reakes, Director of Agriculture, the Trematode, Cestode and Nematode parasites of our imported animals; and Professor Benham, F.R.S., of Otago University, the Oligochaetes. These gentlemen have also given me much valuable general information.

Invaluable assistance has been afforded me in regard both to introduced animals and plants by Mr T. F. Cheeseman of Auckland ; by Mr W. W. Smith of New Plymouth, whose experience as a field naturalist is second to none in the Dominion; by Mr B. C. Aston, chemist of the Agricultural Department, who also is a most observant naturalist; by Dr F. Hilgendorf, of Lincoln Agricultural College; by Dr C. Chilton, Rector of Canterbury College, Christchurch; and by Mr A. Cockayne, Biologist of the Agricultural Department. My old Otago friends and fellow- workers, Dr D. Petrie, now of Auckland,

viii PREFACE

and Dr L. Cockayne, F.R.S., now of Wellington, have contributed much valuable information in regard to plant life. Mr F. L. Ayson, Chief Inspector of Fisheries, has assisted me very materially in bringing the knowledge of introduced fishes up to date.

In addition to all these I take this opportunity of expressing my indebtedness for facts and suggestions to Messrs Edgar F. Stead, Elsdon Best, Chas. Hedley (of the Australian Museum, Sydney), James Drummond, T. W. Kirk, the late Henry Suter, my sons Dr W. M. Thomson, Dr J. Allan Thomson and Mr G. Stuart Thomson, and to a large number of valued correspondents whose names are recorded in the following pages.

This work has given me a great amount of pleasure in the prepara- tion, and I trust it will prove both interesting and useful to its readers.

G.M.T.

DUNEDIN.

August, 1 92 1.

CONTENTS

PART I INTRODUCTION AND HISTORICAL RECORDS

CHAP. PAGE

I. INTRODUCTION i

II. HISTORICAL RECORD 6

PART II NATURALISATION OF ANIMALS

III. MAMMALIA 25

IV. BIRDS 98

V. REPTILES AND AMPHIBIA 178

VI. FISHES 185

VII. MOLLUSCA 258

VIII. INSECTS WITH MYRIAPODA 265

IX. CRUSTACEA AND ARACHNIDA 340

X. PENTASTOMIDjE, PLATYHELMINTHES, NEMATHEL-

MINTHES, OLIGOCtLETA 350

PART III NATURALISATION OF PLANTS

XI. DICOTYLEDONS AND CONIFERS . . . .363

XII. MONOCOTYLEDONS AND FERNS 478

x CONTENTS

PART IV

CHAP. PAGE

XIII. INTERACTION OF ENDEMIC AND INTRODUCED FAUNAS 503

XIV. ALTERATION IN FLORA SINCE EUROPEAN OCCU- PATION OF NEW ZEALAND 517

XV. ACCLIMATISATION WORK; GENERAL CONSIDERA- TIONS 536

XVI. LEGISLATION 541

APPENDIX A; OPOSSUMS IN NEW ZEALAND . . .556

B; LATER RECORDS 557

C; THE TUTIRA DISTRICT 563

RAINFALL MAP 568

BIBLIOGRAPHY 569

INDEX OF AUTHORITIES 585

INDEX OF ANIMALS AND PLANTS 589

Part I

INTRODUCTION AND HISTORICAL RECORD

Chapter I

INTRODUCTION

I HE naturalisation of animals and plants in any country is a most interesting and fascinating subject, as well as being one of very great and far-reaching importance. In the present work I have endeavoured to state what is known of the subject, as far as it relates to New Zealand. I have stated the facts regarding the first introduction of every species into the country, as far as these can be ascertained, and its subsequent success or failure in establishing itself.

In gathering the information required and working out the material, it was soon evident to me that the subject was unique. It had never been attempted before — as far as I am aware — for any country. Indeed it was seen that New Zealand was the only country in which such a bit of history could be attempted with any prospect of success. The islands forming the group lie isolated at a great distance (over a thousand miles) from any other extensive land area. We possess a fairly accurate record of what was here when Europeans first visited these shores, and we have been able to follow the later introductions of new species with a certain measure of success. The missing records and the blank pages are very numerous, but they do not vitiate the general accuracy of these statements.

I first approached this subject from the point of view of natural selection and (in Chap, xm) have given an outline of the reasons which led me to investigate this question. But while the biological question of the origin of species was the raison d'etre of this work, there are other aspects of the study which are of importance.

Thus the generation of people now growing up in this country is living under conditions which are largely different from those which prevailed when the first settlers colonised the islands. The surroundings at present are partly determined by the primitive condi- tions, and partly by the introduction of many new animals and

2 INTRODUCTION

plants. Both the face of the country and its inhabitants have been largely changed, but hitherto no connected account has been available of the agencies which have brought about these profound changes. It is important then that such an account should be prepared, because every year as it passes makes it increasingly difficult to gather the materials. Then the educational value of the knowledge is considerable. The first generations of settlers have already passed away, leaving only isolated records behind them. The generation now passing witnessed the great outburst of acclimatisation zeal in the sixties, but it also failed to keep good records. The acclimatisation societies themselves were very careless in the matter. The Auckland Society has a lapse apparently of some 20 years in its history; the record is somewhere, but it is not available. Nelson has entirely lost its early records ; it was one of the earliest societies to enter on the work of introducing new forms of animal life, yet no one seems to have thought it worth while to preserve a complete report of its doings. If such exists it has not been forthcoming. Otago has kept a complete record, but neither the society itself, nor any of its members can show a full set, and some annual reports are missing. And so on with many other societies. The information, therefore, which has been accumulated in this work has been gathered piecemeal. But by so putting it together, it will be possible to make a fresh start in regard to the present position, and any further additions to the fauna or flora can be noted and added to the lists now prepared.

An important consideration is the practical value of such a state- ment as is presented in this work, in shaping the future policy of acclimatisation. It has hitherto been carried on in the most haphazard and irresponsible manner, districts, societies and individuals acting quite independently of, and often in direct opposition to, one another. One district protects hawks because they destroy rabbits and small birds; another destroys them because they attack game. One district imported stoats and weasels in order to cope with the rabbit pest ; another destroyed them wherever found because they threatened the total destruction of the native bird life. There has been no settled policy. This has largely been due to the total failure of the com- munity to grasp the scientific aspect of the question, or even to realise that it has a scientific side. This consistently British attitude towards things scientific (which it is to be hoped the war will largely modify, and in part dispel) has led to neglect of ordinary precautions in nearly all past acclimatisation experiments. Even as late as 1916 several of the societies were contemplating the contribution of a jointly raised sum for the purpose of introducing Australian swallows into the country, presumably to cope with some aspect of the insect

INTRODUCTION 3

trouble. Apparently no biologist was consulted in connection with the proposal. No one seemed to think it worth while to ascertain what was known as to the life-histories of the Australian swallows, for instance as to what insects they fed upon, or whether the birds were migratory and would stay in the country, if introduced. No particular species was pointed out as the desirable one, indeed it is doubtful whether any one of those who were responsible for recom- mending the step knew one species from another. Further, no one seemed to know that specimens of at least two species of Australian swallows (the Australian Tree Swallow (Pterochelidon nigricans) and the Australian Swift (Cypselus padficus)) visit our shores nearly every summer, and that natural agencies have been trying to achieve on a very large scale what some of our acclimatisation experts proposed to do on a small scale with very little prospect of success.

Still more recently (1916-17) an animated discussion has been going on in Auckland as to the desirability of introducing the " stubble quail or partridge " (Coturnix pectoralis), as a sporting bird, some persons being keenly in favour of, others just as keenly opposed to, the step, on account of the harm the bird might do to the farmers. Apparently the species has been already introduced three times into the country, nearly fifty years ago, at Christchurch, Auckland and Hokianga, but it did not become established.

The whole history of acclimatisation efforts in New Zealand abounds in similar bungles and blunders, and while a certain measure of good has been achieved — notably in stocking our nearly empty rivers and lakes with fine food- and sport-fishes, yet the record of harm done is enormously greater. So-called acclimatisation societies to-day are only angling and sporting clubs, and it is a question whether the whole control should not be taken up by the Government. At any rate the public wants education on the question, and this work is a contribution towards this aspect of it.

On entering on this task I did not realise how vast it was, and how fragmentary was the sum of the existing knowledge, but having com- menced it, I had no thought of turning back, or of abandoning the project. Even if the record be imperfect, it will be of some use to future workers to have pieced together the available material.

In writing some account of the introduced animals I at first thought of confining my attention to mammals, birds and fishes, but this seemed so inadequate that I went on from group to group until I found that my list included over 600 species, commencing with the Marsupials and ending with the Medicinal Leech. The line had, however, to be drawn somewhere, so I have left the microscopic forms for some specialist to deal with. Having launched out on the

4 INTRODUCTION

subject, it seemed inadvisable to stop at the animals, and therefore, having some bowing acquaintance with the floras of Britain, North America and Australia, in addition to that of New Zealand, in due course I added the introduced plants to my previous lists. The two groups can hardly be separated in this connection, and on account of their inter-relations it is best to study them together.

This work does not purport to be merely a list of naturalised animals and plants. I have recorded the introduction of a great number of species which have not succeeded in establishing them- selves, though in some cases repeated attempts were made to naturalise them. The reasons for these failures are often so obscure that no plausible explanation has yet been given. For example the greenfinch and the chaffinch have thriven remarkably, the allied linnet has quite failed. Among fishes, the Pacific-coast Salmon (Onchorhynchus Quinnat) has become strongly established on the east coast of the South Island; while all attempts to naturalise the Atlantic Salmon (Salmo solar), though carried on unceasingly for half a century and in half a hundred different streams, have absolutely failed. The dif- ferent attempts made are recorded under the various species, and such reasons as can be suggested for failure are also recorded. It seems to me that the failure of a species to become established in a new country into which it has been introduced, under what appear to be most favourable conditions, is as important a biological problem as the success of another species, and that the causes of the failure are worthy of examination.

In order that the various species referred to in this work might be recognised with a minimum possibility of mistake, I found it necessary to adopt some authoritative and readily-accessible scheme of classification and nomenclature. It was impossible to go into all the niceties (or obscurities) of zoological and botanical nomenclature ; all that appeared to be essential was that the species referred to should be readily recognisable. Accordingly for the introduced animals I adopted, as far as possible, the schemes used by the various authors of the Cambridge Natural History (Macmillan & Co., London, 1895- 1909); and for the plants the Manual of the New Zealand Flora by Mr T. F. Cheeseman (Wellington, 1906).

A considerable, indeed the major portion of this work is necessarily a compilation, but the information has been secured only by a laborious examination of all the available literature on the subject, and by very extensive correspondence. There is no doubt a great deal of information buried in the columns of the daily press of old days, which I have not been able to consult except in isolated instances. An immense amount of sifting of the wheat from the chaff has also

INTRODUCTION 5

been necessary, for a vast deal of the information communicated to me in all good faith was manifestly unreliable and had to be received with caution. I have endeavoured to secure scientific accuracy, so that the record may be of use to succeeding naturalists ; at the same time I trust it may not be of the dry-as-dust type. The work has been a labour of love, and will, I hope, be found of use and interest to many who do not profess to be naturalists, but who are interested in natural phenomena.

An important aspect of the question is the legal one. A study of all the legislation which has been passed, first by the various pro- vincial legislatures, and later by the Government and Parliament of New Zealand is extremely interesting from many points of view, and I have added this at the end of this work.

Chapter II

HISTORICAL RECORD

THE history of the naturalisation of animals and plants in large island areas has never, to my knowledge, been fully studied anywhere. Isolated introductions have frequently been dealt with, especially in recent cases, but apparently no one has sought to work out the history of the whole of the introduced fauna and flora of any country. The reason almost certainly is that, with one notable exception, the beginnings of the introductions could never be ascertained. The one exception is New Zealand. Here we have an area of land of very con- siderable extent lying far away from any other large areas, in which the first introduction of a majority of the species which now occur and are not indigenous to the country, can be traced. We can tell when and how many of the species which are now so abundantly represented first came into the country. We can learn of numerous attempts to introduce species which have, however, failed to establish themselves.

On the other hand we find that a vast number of species, both of animals and plants, have found their way into the country, 'as it were, by chance. We do not always know with certainty where they came from, though we have a knowledge of their geographical distribution which enables us to form a fairly correct impression. We often cannot tell the time of their introduction, nor the means by which this was accomplished. The most we can do — and even this is not always possible — is to record the first notice of their appearance in the country and their subsequent history.

The first date which we can fix upon as that at which a definite introduction of new species commenced is that of the arrival of Captain Cook in New Zealand on his second voyage, in 1773, when he landed at Dusky Sound, and later at Queen Charlotte Sound. On these occasions besides leaving various animals, he sowed several kinds of European seeds, mostly garden vegetables. Some of these are known to have survived.

Previous to that date the native inhabitants had brought with them from Polynesia, and perhaps from Melanesia, certain species of plants which they cultivated, and apparently also they had carried with them a species or rather a variety of dog. Unintentionally also they probably introduced the Polynesian rat (Mvs exulans), as well as at least one species of flea — probably Pidex irritans (some think

HISTORICAL RECORD 7

two species). Mr Best considers the Europeans are responsible for the introduction of the fleas. According to Maori tradition two species of louse (Pediculus) were also introduced by Polynesian immigrants. Mr Cheeseman has pointed out that the Polynesians were great cultivators, and carried their cultivated plants from one part of the Pacific Ocean to another. He considers that they knew of the existence of New Zealand, of the occurrence of greenstone and of the moa, and that their migrations were not accidental, but were conducted on definite principles.

While it is not possible to fix even approximately the date of introduction of any of the species of animals and plants which occurred wild in New Zealand in 1773, and which were common to this country, and any other land areas, it is advisable to take a brief survey of these common species and see from what region the most recent introductions before that date appear to have come.

To begin with, it must be borne in mind that the introduction of living organisms has been going on continuously throughout all the ages during which New Zealand has existed as a distinct land- area, and that the process still continues naturally. It is impossible to arrive at any accurate testimony of the results of this process, but certain considerations point to its existence.

Of the two bats which occur in New Zealand the Long-tailed Bat (Chalinolobus mono) is also found in South-eastern Australia; the other belongs to an endemic genus, Mystacops.

The bird-fauna contains a number of endemic genera and species, the affinities of many being obscure. Of those which belong to readily recognised types of land birds, the majority have affinities with the Australian avifauna, but as Hutton has pointed out, only with that section of it which is allied to that of Malaysia.

The lizards do not help us here, for, excluding the Tuatara, which is a survival from archaic times, they belong to genera of very wide distribution, and are probably of very considerable antiquity. As regards the relationships of the land and fresh-water mollusca, Hutton, as far back as 1883, stated that "our closest connection appears to be with North Australia, but there is a considerable generic affinity with the faunas of New Caledonia, Polynesia and South America."

Taking Suter's Manual as our guide, we find that there are 34 genera of land and fresh-water mollusca in New Zealand. Of these 13 are confined to these islands; three range into Tasmania and Australia, but no further; 13 are found in Australasia, but are more or less widely distributed outside the region ; while five range into the Pacific, but are not Australian. Closer analysis bears out the general accuracy of Hutton's generalisation.

8 HISTORICAL RECORD

These 34 genera are represented by 236 species, all but one of them being endemic, viz., Ophicardelus australis, which is also found in Tasmania, Australia and New Caledonia. Planorbis corinna which is world- wide in its distribution is precinctive to New Zealand, but the genus Planorbis has a universal distribution.

Mr Suter informs me that "the genera of land mollusca which we have in common with Tasmania and Australia are far better represented in the former country, but disappear gradually as the north-east is reached. The affinities of our land and fresh- water molluscs are strongly marked on the line extending over Lord Howe Island to New Caledonia."

The relationship of New Zealand insects to those of other regions is dealt with in a number of papers scattered through many publica- tions, but the knowledge of the subject is still very fragmentary. Meyrick, in his papers on Lepidoptera, favours the theory of introduc- tion of several groups (e.g. Caradrinina) from South America via Antarctica. But leaving the general question and confining myself to species derived from the nearest present land surface, the following summary of the distribution of the Lepidoptera, for which I am indebted to Mr A. Philpott, is of interest :

Total number of species hitherto recorded in New Zealand . . . 1040

Common to Australia and New Zealand 63

Cosmopolitan species ? 24

Introduced from Australia to N.Z., by shipping (say) ... 6 Introduced to Australia from N.Z., by shipping (say) ... 3

— 33

Leaving for the question of origin, only 30 species, or say, 3 per cent, common to both countries.

These figures are not very conclusive one way or another.

The nearest land-surface of any extent is the continent of Australia and, as might be expected, immigrants from thence are by no means uncommon. Within the last score or so of years a great many species of Australian birds have been recorded as occasional visitants to New Zealand. The same remark applies to some of the stronger flying insects. This shows that though the fauna recognised as indigenous has originally been introduced from several directions in former ages, there has been and still is a constant stream of immigrants from Eastern Australia into these islands. The remarkable thing then is that there should be so comparatively little direct connection between the two countries so far as the fauna is concerned. The fact is that it is very difficult for a species of animal to establish itself in a new country, even assuming that many individuals arrive at

HISTORICAL RECORD 9

the same time. The immigrants on arrival are certainly in an exhausted state and physically incapable of defending themselves from the assaults of enemies. The shores of the new land are patrolled by great numbers of gulls and similar predaceous birds, which would make short work of any travel-worn immigrants that landed and did not immediately find cover. The chances of getting food are also problematical. But even assuming that the individuals survived and throve, the chances of their finding mates are very remote; so that altogether the probabilities are against the establishment of the species. As a matter of fact they do not succeed. The only bird which appears to have come into New Zealand since the days of European settlement and to have established itself, is the Wax-eye or Blight-bird (Zosterops coerulescens).

In taking a survey of the existing Flora of New Zealand in con- nection with its relationship to other plant-associations, and taking Cheeseman's Manual as my authority for the following figures, I desire to state at the outset that I do not attach too much importance to numerical comparisons, because I realise the enormously different values attached by systematists to different species. These values depend largely upon the personal equation, and further on the amount of detailed study given to any specified groups of organisms. There are certain genera of New Zealand plants which are apparently in a state of flux even at the present time. These have been submitted to close examination, a vast amount of material has been gone through, and in consequence innumerable differences have been recognised, and a large number of species defined. Such, for example, are Ranunculus with 37 New Zealand species, Epilobium 28, Coprosma 39, Olearia 35, Celmisia 43, Senecio 30, Veronica 84, and Car ex 53. Many of these are sharply defined, easily recognised species, but for others the specific diagnosis is only the central rallying point for a large group of individuals showing considerable divergencies in many directions. I am safe in asserting that if similar detail were gone into with all the plants grouped under such common names as, for example, Accenamicrophylla, Gaultheriaantipoda, orPimelea leevigata, and many others which might be named, it would be found that each deserves to be separated into a group of distinct species. Keeping this reservation in mind, we can still form an approximate estimate of the relationships shown by any given aggregation of species. Thus of the total number of 1396 species of New Zealand flowering plants recorded by Cheeseman, no fewer than 263 (or almost 19 per cent.) are also found to occur in Australia. Of these 134 occur both in Australia and Tasmania (eight in Tasmania alone), while the remaining 129 have a wider range, some being common tropical or sub-tropical

io HISTORICAL RECORD

weeds, while others are found throughout the temperate zone in both hemispheres. The endemic species, which do not range outside of New Zealand, number no less than 1069, or 76-6 per cent, of the whole (viz. 860 dicotyledons and 209 monocotyledons). This brings out the affinities of the remaining elements more strongly than ever, for it shows that of 327 species which are common to New Zealand and other countries, no less than 80 per cent, are also found in Australia. The remaining elements — Antarctic and Polynesian — are few as com- pared with the Australian.

It would appear from the above analysis that immigration of flowering plants from Australia into New Zealand has been going on steadily, and an examination of many of the individual species leads to the conclusion that much of it is quite recent. Thus of pappus-bearing composites, ten species are confined to New Zealand and Australia1; six more are found in New Zealand and Australia, but have a wider range outside2.

No plant of South American, Polynesian or Antarctic affinity is furnished with a pappus. The list of Australian plants includes four species of Epilobium, furnished with pappus-like hairs on the seed; and 14 species of Orchids (out of a total of 53 species, the remainder being endemic) furnished with very minute light seeds which are easily carried by wind. These facts tend to show that species whose seeds can be distributed by wind are fairly abundant among those plants which are common to New Zealand and Australia, and the probability is that many were thus introduced into these islands3.

I regret that I cannot give the date for the following interesting occurrence (I think it was about 1877), but it was so striking a phenomenon that it fixed itself in my memory at the time. It occurred in Dunedin in the autumn (February or March). One bright forenoon the sky became strangely overcast from the west, and the sun at midday assumed a coppery appearance. Some persons attributed the phenomenon to bush fires in the western districts, but no such fires were recorded anywhere in New Zealand. Others more accurately thought it was due to a smoke-cloud from Australia. This proved to be the case. Vessels voyaging between

1 Celmisia longifolia, Vittadinia australis, Gnaphalium traversii, G. collinum, Craspedia uniflora, Erechtites prenanthoides , E. arguta, E. quadridentata, Senecio lautus and Microseris forsteri.

2 Gnaphalium japonicum, G. luteo-album, Picris hieracioides , Taraxacum qfficinale, Sonchus asper and S. oleraceus.

8 Linnean Soc. 3Oth Nov. 1916 (London). Using a wind-dispersal apparatus Mr Jas. Small, M.Sc., found that in a light air the fruit of Senecio vulgaris travelled at the rate of 1-6 miles per hour through the air, and of Taraxacum officinale 1-5 miles per hour.

HISTORICAL RECORD n

Australia and New Zealand, and others passing up the east coast of Australia at the time, reported dense smoke-clouds from Gippsland and North-west Victoria, and also the falling of considerable quantities of ash and charred vegetable matter. The westerly winds drove the smoke right across the Tasman Sea, and at a distance of about 1200 miles it still exerted such an influence on the upper atmosphere as to make the whole sky lurid for a period of three or four hours. A wind which could carry such a body of smoke such a distance could probably easily transport seeds and spores, and though the usual course of the wind-currents is not so directly from west to east, yet such high winds apparently do occur, and that not unfrequently.

Another agency by which seeds are carried to oceanic islands is by means of birds, which bear them attached to their feet or plumage, and in some cases carry them in their crops. Darwin, Wallace and others have given numerous instances of this fact in plant distribution1. Apart from regular migrants which come to New Zealand every year from Australia, Polynesia and the Northern Hemisphere, a con- siderable number of stragglers are blown or stray over from Australia each year. The wonder, therefore, is not that Australian species of plants are met with in considerable numbers in New Zealand, but rather that they are not more common than is found to be the case.

As far as all truly indigenous species of animals and plants are concerned it is quite impossible to give dates for any which may have been introduced in long past ages, as for example those which are common, say, to New Zealand and Australia. But when we come down to recent times and reach the period of human immigration, it becomes possible to give some approximation to definite dates.

According to Maori tradition, New Zealand was discovered by two Polynesian voyagers named Kupe and Ngahue, but authorities are not yet agreed as to the period of this discovery.

The first Polynesian settlement in the time of Toi took place 30 to 32 generations, that is approximately 800 years, ago. On the arrival of these immigrants, they found the east coast, north and Taranaki districts occupied by the Mouriuri, Moriori or Maruiwi folk in considerable numbers, descendants of crews of three drift canoes, which had apparently come from the north-west. Whether these people had brought any animals or plants with them it is now impossible to say. According to east coast traditions, the Toi tribes had the Hue Gourd (Lagenaria vulgaris) in cultivation at an early

1 Darwin in a letter to Dr J. D. Hooker in January, 1860, says: "Birds do not migrate from Australia to New Zealand," a curious error for such a good observer to make, and showing the danger of generalising from imperfect data. Many species regularly cross, notably the Shining Cuckoo and the Dotterel.

12 HISTORICAL RECORD

period, so that this plant was probably introduced from 24 to 30 generations ago, that is between 1150 and 1300 A.D. Communica- tion was kept up with Polynesia for about 200 years more, new settlers coming over from time to time. The last batch of vessels, including the Arawa, Tainui and other canoes, arrived about 20 generations or 500 years ago, say about 1400 A.D. Reference has already been made to the introduction by some of these early voyagers, of the dog, the native rat, one or more species of flea, and two species of lice.

The Kumara (Ipomcea batatas) appears to have been introduced first about 1300 A.D. , tradition saying that certain voyagers left Whaka- tane for Polynesia about that time, for the express purpose of bringing over that plant. Subsequent immigrants by the Aotea, Arawa, Tainui, and other canoes, also brought the plant. Indeed it is probable that it was continuously introduced by many of the new arrivals.

Mr Cheeseman in the Manual (p. 100) states in regard to Poma- derris apetala: "The Maoris assert that it sprang from the rollers or skids that were brought in the canoe 'Tainui' when they first colonised New Zealand." Mr Elsdon Best, to whom I referred this point, tells me that about 1879 he saw a grove of these trees

on a terrace near the mouth of the Mohakatina river. Local natives told him that the tree was called Te Neke o Tainui (the skid of Tainui), and that the grove had originated from the skids of the canoe Tainui, used in hauling the vessel ashore on her arrival here twenty generations ago, the skids having been brought from oversea. On my return to New Plymouth I met Mr Wilson Hursthouse, who, I found, was acquainted with the Maori name of the tree and the myth connected with it.

Pomaderris apetala is an Australian as well as a New Zealand species, but is not found in any part of Polynesia. It is difficult to con- jecture, therefore, how such a myth could have arisen.

Perhaps about the same time, that is about 1400 A.D., the introduc- tion of the Taro (Calocasia antiquorum) and the Ti (Cordyline termi- nalis) took place. One tradition says that they arrived in the Nukutere canoe, brought by one Roua, that is about 500 years ago. The same tradition narrates that the Karaka (Corynocarpus leevigata) was intro- duced at the same time, by the same individual. If so, it may have been brought from Western Polynesia by way of the Kermadecs, where it is a common tree. At the same time the genus is quite peculiar, and is endemic to New Zealand. If it did not originate in this country, then the home whence it came has lost it, for its botanical position and relationships are by no means clear.

After the arrival of the main migrations about 20 generations ago, there are no definite traditions of further Polynesian immigration,

HISTORICAL RECORD 13

but voyagers left the shores of New Zealand for Polynesia as late as ten generations or 250 years ago, and presumably others arrived from time to time.

With the arrival of Captain James Cook in New Zealand we can begin to assign definite dates to many of the introductions.

In October, 1769, Captain Cook landed at Poverty Bay, and later at Anaura Bay, and at both places Messrs Banks and Solander made collections of native plants. He next stayed a week at Tolaga Bay, and ii days at Mercury Bay. On 2ist November a landing was made some miles up the Thames River, and then six days were spent at the Bay of Islands. On i6th January, 1770, he anchored in Queen Charlotte Sound, and made a stay of three weeks. Again on 27th March he was four days in Admiralty Bay to the west of Queen Charlotte Sound. There is no word in all these landings of his intro- ducing any animals or any seeds, yet it is more than probable that Black Rats (Mus rattus), the common ship's rat, were on board the ' Endeavour,' and that some got ashore. It is also possible that some European seeds may have been accidentally introduced. The voyage was one for exploration only, as far as New Zealand was concerned, and the ships were quite differently equipped on later visits.

In December, 1769, only two months after Cook's arrival, De Surville spent three weeks in the ' Saint Jean Baptiste ' in Mongonui Harbour.

In 1772 the French expedition under Marion du Fresne which had such a fatal ending as far as New Zealand was concerned, spent over two months in the Bay of Islands ; and it is stated by both Taylor and Polack, I do not know on what authority, that Crow Garlic (Allium vineale), which is so abundant in that district, was introduced by him. No collections of plants were made during either of these French expeditions, but it is quite possible that some animals or plants found their way into the country.

Crozet, who took up the command of the expedition on Captain Marion's death, writes (in 1772):

I formed a garden on Moutouaro Island, in which I sowed the seed of all sorts of vegetables, stones and the pips of our fruits, wheat, millet, maize, and in fact every variety of grain which I had brought from the Cape of Good Hope ; everything succeeded admirably, several of the grains sprouted and appeared above ground, and the wheat especially grew with surprising vigour. The garden on Moutouaro Island alone was not sufficient to satisfy my desires. I planted stones and pips wherever I went, in the plains, in the glens, on the slopes, and even on the mountains; I also sowed everywhere a few of the different varieties of grain, and most of the officers did the same.

Captain Cook in his second voyage in the 'Resolution/ spent

i4 HISTORICAL RECORD

five weeks — from the 26th March to ist May, 1773 — in Dusky Sound, and while there cleared a piece of ground of about an acre in extent to make a garden, and sowed "a quantity of European seeds of the best kinds." No list of these seeds is given, though cabbages, onions, and leeks are mentioned, but they were in all probability the same sorts as were sown later at Queen Charlotte Sound. Apparently not one of them was able to establish itself in the moist climate of the Sound, and as predicted by George Forster in his Journal, the native vegetation quickly re-asserted itself, and obliterated all trace of the introduced plants1.

That Cook hoped to introduce useful plants and animals into a country which he knew by his previous experience did not furnish much food for voyagers, is shown by his leaving geese at Dusky Sound, and these were the first animals which were introduced of set purpose. He had five geese on board his ship, and these were liberated at a spot which he called Goose Cove. This first experiment in acclimatisation, like hundreds of others made in later years, was quite unsuccessful, and nothing was ever seen or heard of the birds again.

Lieut. Menzies, the botanist of Vancouver's expedition in 1791, says:

As Captain Cook had left five geese in this cove, we were in hopes of meeting with some of their offspring, and thereby partaking of the fruits of his benevolence, but as they were left in the autumn, I am apprehensive they did not survive the first winter, for not the least traces of any could be seen at this time about the cove, and though there was a scarcity of other birds on account of this being the season of incubation, yet it appears to be the most eligible place in the whole Sound for Game at a proper time of the year.

Meanwhile his colleague Captain Furneaux, in the 'Adventure,' had put into Queen Charlotte Sound on 7th April, 1773, and was joined there by Cook on i8th May. They stayed till 7th June, and then went southward in search of an antarctic continent. At the Sound, Cook liberated a ram and ewe he had brought with him from the Cape of Good Hope, but they were in a very bad state of health, and died very shortly after being landed. They were supposed to have eaten some poisonous plant.

Captain Furneaux landed a boar and two breeding sows, and turned them into the woods. They were not to be seen, nor were there any traces of them found the following year, but the members of the expedition thought that the animals had taken themselves off into the denser forest. When Cook came back in 1777 he could learn

1 In & Journal of the voyage of the 'Endeavour' printed anonymously in 1771, it is stated at p. 58: "At Otaheite we had likewise planted many European seeds, of which none, except mustard, cresses and melons were found to vegetate."

HISTORICAL RECORD 15

nothing about them, so he gave the natives another boar and sow, with instructions not to kill them. It is probable that these original pigs were the ancestors of the long-nosed wild pigs which afterwards became so common in the South Island.

Cook also landed two goats, a male and a female, on the east side of the Sound, but there is reason to believe that the natives killed them. He' gave them another pair in 1777, and it is popularly believed that most of the wild goats found in the South Island in the early days of settlement are descended from these.

In West Bay, Cook liberated some fowls, and though he could not find any trace of them when he visited the spot in October, 1774, yet in his later visit in February, 1777, he stated that "all the natives whom I conversed with agreed that poultry are now to be met with wild in the woods behind Ship Cove ; and I was afterwards informed by the two youths who went with us, that Tuitou, a popular chief amongst them, had a great many cocks and hens in his separate possession."

During this stay of two months, ground was cleared at more than one spot, and numerous kinds of vegetable seeds were sown, including turnip, cabbage, white mustard, radish, purslane, peas, beans, kidney beans, parsley, carrot, parsnip, onion and leek: potatoes also were planted. Of these, cabbage, and apparently also turnip, onion and leek succeeded in establishing themselves ; radishes seeded freely, but the peas, beans and kidney beans were eaten by rats. It is more than probable that some European weeds of cultivation were introduced at the same time.

On 2nd November when near Cape Kidnappers, Cook gave some pigs and fowls to natives who came off in a canoe, the first intro- duction of these two kinds to the North Island. On the following day he once more entered Queen Charlotte Sound, and waited till the 25th for his consort, but as she had not arrived by that time, he left for a cruise in the Antarctic Ocean. The 'Adventure' arrived in the Sound five days later, and remained over three weeks, during which time the unfortunate massacre of ten of her crew took place. After a long cruise in the Antarctic and Pacific Oceans, Cook returned to Queen Charlotte Sound on igth October, 1774, and finally left for England on loth November.

The important thing about this voyage, from our present point of view, is that Cook brought with him various animals and plants for the express purpose of introducing them, having experienced on his first voyage the lack of fresh food in the country, beyond that which the natives were able to supply them with. To this voyage we can assign the introduction and subsequent naturalisation of the pig

16 HISTORICAL RECORD

and the goat and perhaps of fowls ; and among plants, of the cabbage, turnip and potato. Other attempts to naturalise plants mostly failed.

Cook visited Queen Charlotte Sound again on his third and last voyage to the Pacific, entering it on i2th February, 1777, and leaving it on the 25th. There is no record of any attempts to introduce further species, except the pigs and goats previously referred to.

In 1791, Vancouver visited Dusky Sound, and Lieut. Menzies reported that in the garden (made by Cook eight years previously) there had grown up a dense covering of brushwood and fern, which completely obliterated all sign of the old clearing, and only the fact that its position was recorded and described enabled the spot to be identified.

In view of the struggle between indigenous and introduced plants which exercised the minds of many eminent naturalists, and to which reference is made in the writings of Hooker, Darwin, Wallace and others, the record of further visits to Dusky Sound is interesting.

The value of the seal and whale fisheries of Southern New- Zealand soon drew enterprising sailors to these waters, and a whole- sale destruction of these animals took place. Dusky Sound had been charted by Cook, its harbour was not only safe, but it provided abundance of fish, wood and water, hence it made a good rendezvous, and the base of a good hunting ground.

On 3rd November, 1792, the 'Britannia' from Sydney anchored in Facile Harbour, Dusky Sound, and landed a party of twelve sealers, with store of provisions, etc. These men were not relieved till September, 1793, when the 'Britannia' revisited the spot, and took them off. During the early part of the same year the Sound was visited by the Spanish corvettes ' Descuvierta ' (commanded by Don Alexandro Malaspina), and 'Atrevida' (Don Jose Bustamente). I do not know how long they stayed.

Captain Raven of the ' Britannia ' in reporting from Norfolk Island on 2nd November, 1793, says : " The animals I left had fed themselves on what they found in the woods, and were exceedingly fat and prolific" It would be interesting to know what animals these were, and whether any had gone wild, or had been left, or if they were all carried away again. Unfortunately we have no information on the subject.

On i9th September, 1795, the 'Endeavour,' Captain Bampton, of 800 tons, and the brig 'Fancy' of 150 tons, sailed from Sydney for India, and called in at Dusky Sound — perhaps to load some spars. They had no less than 244 people on board the two ships. There they found a small vessel, which the twelve men left by the ' Britannia ' had built during their ten months' stay in the Sound, but which they

HISTORICAL RECORD 17

had not taken off the stocks. Captain Bampton completed this little vessel, and called it the 'Providence.' On i9th January, 1796, the ' Fancy ' and the ' Providence ' arrived at Norfolk Island, and reported that the 'Endeavour' had been wrecked at Dusky Sound. She had been found utterly unseaworthy, and had been emptied, abandoned and sunk there. An enormous amount of stuff must have been carried ashore. Owing to the small size of the two remaining vessels, no less than 35 men had to be left behind, no doubt with abundance of stores. These derelicts were not rescued till May, 1797, when the 'Mercury' left Sydney for Dusky, picked them up, and landed them at Norfolk Island, after twenty months' detention in the Sound.

Sealing and whaling vessels continued to visit the Sound at intervals, and parties of men were certainly there in 1803, 1804 and 1805. I have myself gone down in much more recent years with sealing parties to the south, and have some notion of the equipment they used to carry. In addition to bags of flour, meal, sugar, etc., they nearly always carried considerable quantities of potatoes. During these fifteen or sixteen years referred to (between 1791 and 1805) many men lived on shore, often for lengthened periods, and almost certainly took with them large quantities of stores, which must have frequently contained seeds of many European weeds of cultivation. An example of this is shown in the case of four men (members of a sealing party) who were left on the Solanders for four and a half years, and were rescued in 1813. They had attempted to raise potatoes and cabbages, of which plants one of them happened to have some seed wherx they were unhappily driven upon the island, but the sea-spray rendered cultivation impracticable. In the same year ten men were rescued from Secretary Island, in Thompson Sound, who had been left there in 1809.

Yet it is an interesting fact that in the West Coast Sounds region practically no European plants are to be found, except on the Milford track, which has been much frequented by tourists in recent years.

A Sydney paper of 4th September, 1813, reports an interview with Captain Williams, who stated that "the natives of the coast of Foveaux Strait attend to the cultivation of the potato with as much diligence as he ever witnessed. He saw one field of considerably more than one hundred acres, which presented the appearance of one well cultivated bed." In 1824, De Blosseville of the 'Coquille,' writing from Captain Edwardson's report says: "Potatoes, cabbages and other vegetables introduced by the Europeans are grown." These southern natives had not seen pigs up to the time of Edwardson's visit; so he gave them some.

In 1826 the schooner ' Sally,' with a large number of immigrants,

i8 HISTORICAL RECORD

together with many cattle, sheep and other stock from England, called in at Stewart Island — presumably at Port Pegasus — and stayed for a period of three weeks. Apparently the 'Rosanna' also called with immigrants. She then went on to Hokianga, where a settlement was made, but Captain Herd and most of the settlers took fright and sailed for Sydney, only four men remaining.

In 1820 Major Cruise, who spent ten months in the north of New Zealand, says: "The excellent plants left by Captain Cook" (in Queen Charlotte Sound?) "viz., Cabbages, turnips, parsnips, carrots, etc., etc., are still numerous, but very much degenerated; and a great part of the country is over-run with cow-itch which the natives gave Marion the credit of having left among them." (I do not know what plant he refers to here.) "Water melons and peas were raised while we were in the country, with great success, and the people promised to save the seeds and sow them again. The missionaries have got some peach trees that bear very well, and an acorn and a seed of an orange were sown by a gentleman of the ship near Pomarrees village, and the place rigidly tabooed by the inhabitants." Cruise also reports that the natives (at Wy-ow Bay) brought a cat for them to cook and eat, which he remarks must have come from the shipping at the Bay of Islands or from the Coromandel.

In 1832, d'Urville — who spent four months on the coast of the South Island — found a gang of six men — sealers — working at Mason Bay, Stewart Island. In his visit in 1840, he entered Port Pegasus and learned that 20 English sailors had settled on the shores of Foveaux Strait, where they had married native women. They grew potatoes and various other vegetables, and reared fowls. They told d'Urville that as many as 20 vessels anchored in Port Pegasus annually.

In this same year (1840) Major Bunbury in his report on the proclamation of Stewart Island as Her Majesty's possession, says of Paterson Inlet, "the Europeans there employ themselves at boat building and in the culture of wheat and potatoes, with which they supply the whalers, as also with pigs and poultry."

Previous to this, Waikouaiti was one of the best known whaling stations on the Otago coast. In 1838 this was purchased from its Sydney owners by Mr John Jones, who two years later sent down several families to engage in farming and cattle raising, and at the end of 1840 the population of the settlement numbered about 100 persons. They had enclosed some 6000 acres of land, and had about 100 acres in crop; while the live stock numbered about 100 horses, 200 cattle, and 2000 sheep.

In 1840 also a small settlement was made where Christchurch

HISTORICAL RECORD 19

now stands, for the cultivation of wheat for certain Sydney mills. About 30 acres were grown, but the place was abandoned soon after on account of rats, difficulties of shipment, and fires.

In 1842 Captain Wm Mein Smith, chief surveyor of the Wellington Land Company, visited the south-east of Otago, and writes of one settlement there as follows:

At Tautuku Bay (30 miles from Molyneux River) is a good deal of land cultivated by a number of industrious men who are, through the winter, engaged in the whale fishery. In the summer they are occupied in their gardens. They produce abundance of fine potatoes, and as much wheat and barley as they can consume. They have many pigs, goats, and a rapidly increasing stock of poultry.

It is quite probable that several of the European weeds of cultiva- tion which are now so common in the south end of New Zealand were introduced in these days of early and casual settlement. But few animals would be thus brought in, except perhaps certain flies and other domestic insects, and perhaps some worms, wood-lice and such familiar accompaniments of human settlement.

Turning to the north of New Zealand, though the visitation was greater, the record has not been worked out so thoroughly as for the south. But from the end of the i8th century greater numbers of vessels visited northern ports for the whale fishery. Captain King, Governor of New South Wales, had landed in the Bay of Islands in 1793, and gave the natives some pigs, as well as wheat, maize, and no doubt other things not mentioned. The Rev. Samuel Marsden sent them wheat in 1810, and a further lot in 1811. When he visited the island in 1814, he brought with him the mission party, which was established at Kerikeri and Waimate near the Bay of Islands, and the live stock accompanying the party included one entire horse, two mares, one bull and two cows, with a few sheep and poultry. From this date onwards there is no doubt numerous introductions of plants and animals were made. In 1822 the Wesleyan Mission station at Kaeo-Wangaroa was established, but the party were driven out of there and shifted their ground to Hokianga. The occurrence of exotic historic trees of great size at the present day in these regions testifies to the activity of the missionaries as pioneers in this work of introducing new forms of life in the country. Then too, the quantity of flax, potatoes and other produce, exported from New Zealand and supplied to ships in these pre-settlement days, was very great, and this shows that there must have been much trade and inter- communication between the natives and the Europeans. Numbers of weeds and of animals must have been introduced into the north in this way. About 1826 the ' Rosanna ' (already mentioned) with some

20 HISTORICAL RECORD

60 settlers on board, came intoHokianga with the intention of founding a settlement, but as a tribal war was being waged among the natives at the time, the party did not remain, but went off and landed at Sydney.

As I am not writing a history of New Zealand except in so far as it relates to the facilities which existed for the introduction of new forms of animal and plant life into the country, I must hurriedly pass over these pre-settlement days, merely pointing out that a great deal of communication must have been going on with outside ports from many parts of the country. The township of Russell or Korora- reka in the Bay of Islands, was founded in 1830 by Benjamin Turner, an ex-Sydney convict, who built the first grog-shop there. Two years later the population numbered about 100, and in 1838 about 1000. "As many as thirty-six whalers were anchored there at one time, and in one year 120 vessels sailed in and out."

The first regular settlement scheme commenced in 1839 when the 'Tory' with Captain Wakefield, Dr Dieffenbach, and others, arrived in Port Nicolson, and after trying a site for a town near Petone, founded what is now Wellington. Early in the following year the immigrant ships began to arrive, and by the end of 1840 the population of Wellington numbered about noo persons.

The first official capital of New Zealand was Kororareka or Russell, but the seat of government was shifted to the Waitemata, and Captain Hobson selected the site of the future town there, which he called "Auckland," in September, 1840. The same year saw the commence- ment of the Taranaki settlement, and by the end of 1841, the popula- tion of New Plymouth numbered some 500 persons. In 1841 Nelson was founded, and in January and October of 1842, four vessels with some 850 passengers arrived in Nelson harbour. In 1848 the Otago settlement was founded and 278 immigrants were landed on the site of Dunedin. In 1843 the Deans brothers settled near the present site of Christchurch, but it was not till the close of 1850 that the pioneers of the Canterbury settlement, numbering 800 souls, landed in Port Cooper.

In the First Annual Report (for 1843) of the Agricultural and Horticultural Society of Auckland it is stated that the following trees were then in cultivation: peaches, nectarines, apricots, almonds, figs, lemons, oranges, olives, vines, plums, cherries, mulberries, pears, apples, quinces, walnuts, filberts, loquats, gooseberries, red and black currants, raspberries and strawberries; the Cape gooseberry (Phy salts edulis) is said to be "almost indigenous; it grows wild in every part of the country."

In those early days of settlement voyages between Great Britain

HISTORICAL RECORD 21

and the colony were long, extending from three to five months, and it must have been difficult to convey many animals on board the small ships which were the only carriers. But the immigrants occa- sionally brought out pets, especially cats and dogs, with probably fowls, pigeons, rabbits, canaries and other song birds. Certainly also they introduced most of the common weeds, such as chickweeds, thistles, groundsel, and others. I have more than once observed the plants which have grown up round a heap of ashes and rubbish where immigrants' old bedding and refuse were burned, and only regret now that I did not keep a record of the species at the time.

For several years the settlers were too busy founding homes and bringing their land into cultivation to attend much to any but the most essential things; but after about a score of years had passed, and there was time for leisure and reminiscence, new ideas came to them, or perhaps it is more correct to say, original ideas re-asserted themselves as they seemed to be capable of realisation.

The beginning of the rush of immigration dates from between 1840 and 1850, and the process has been continued with more or less intermission ever since. But in a general sketch of the subject of animal and plant introduction, we need not concern ourselves further as to dates ; these will be given as far as possible in the case of each individual species. Here we are concerned only with the general result and its causes.

The early settlers of New Zealand found themselves in a land which, as far as regards climate and natural conditions, seemed to them to reproduce many of the best features of the homeland from which they came. They thought with affection and with the glamour of youthful remembrance of the lakes and rivers, the woods and the fields, the hills and the dells of that homeland. They recalled the sport which was forbidden to all but a favoured few, but which they had often longed to share in — the game preserves, the deer on the mountains or in the parks, the grouse on the heather-clad hills, the pheasants in the copses and plantations, the hares and partridges in the stubbles and turnip fields, the rabbits in the hedgerows and sandy warrens, and the salmon of forbidden price in their rivers — and there rose up before their vision a land where all these desirable things might be found and enjoyed. Their thoughts went back to the days when they guddled the spotted trout from under the stones of the burns and brooks, to the song birds which charmed their youthful ears, to the flowers and trees which delighted the eye. They recalled the pleasant memories of hours passed on the hills and in the woods of their beloved native land. Here, in a land of plenty, with few wild animals, few flowers apparently, and no associations, with streams

22 HISTORICAL RECORD

almost destitute of fish, with shy song birds and few game birds, and certainly no quadrupeds but lizards, it seemed to them that it only wanted the best of the plants and animals associated with these earlier memories to make it a terrestrial paradise. So with zeal un- fettered by scientific knowledge, they proceeded to endeavour to re- produce— as far as possible— the best-remembered and most cherished features of the country from which they came. No doubt some utilitarian ideas were mingled with those of romance and early associa- tions, but the latter were in the ascendant. They recked not of new conditions, they knew nothing of the possibilities of development possessed by species of plants and animals which, in the severe struggle for existence of their northern home had reached a more or less stable position.

This wonderful wave of sentiment manifested itself especially in the sixties. From Auckland to the Bluff the people founded acclimatisa- tion societies for the purpose of introducing what seemed to them desirable animals, and they allowed their fancy free play. In their private capacities they got their friends at home to send them seeds of the wild flowers they had loved, and they sowed these in all sorts of localities, wherever it seemed to them that they would grow. No biological considerations ever disturbed their dreams, nor indeed did they ever enter into their calculations. I have been on the council of an acclimatisation society, and I know the enthusiasm, unalloyed by scientific considerations, which animates the members. As far as flowering plants were concerned disappointment followed many of their efforts; the primroses and bluebells, the heather and the wood violets, refused to grow either in the bush or in the open country, and the sowers were frankly disappointed. Even when the seed was sown in the garden or the greenhouse and the plants were put out in the open, they would not reproduce their kind. Most of these early colonists recked not of such things as cross- and self- fertilisation, and those who did know were not prepared to recom- mend an insect invasion to secure the fertilisation of their favourite wild flowers.

In time some of the plants and animals which had been introduced not only established themselves securely, but increased at a rate which upset all calculations. Conditions were produced which had never been anticipated and the introductions became dangerous and expensive pests. Then public measures had to be taken to check the newcomers, and in some cases their natural enemies had to be introduced. This has led to further complication and unexpected results. These natural enemies, like the things they were meant to check, did not always do what was expected of them ; they frequently

HISTORICAL RECORD 23

failed to achieve the purpose for which they were introduced, and took to destroying things which it was desirable should be preserved. Legislation had to be resorted to in order to destroy some introduced things and to protect others. Noxious Weeds Act, Animal Protection Acts, Injurious Birds Acts, and so on, have been passed into law, together with countless Regulations and Orders in Council dealing with the same subject in its multifarious aspects. By way of com- mentary and satire on the whole business, the Government in many cases is itself the chief offender against the laws of its own making.

At the close of nearly 150 years since Cook first visited these shores, the country has not yet realised the necessity of a scientific treatment of the whole question of naturalisation. Species are still being introduced. In nearly every case now it is claimed that this is done for beneficent purposes, but the same argument justified the early settlers who introduced insectivorous birds to eat up the cater- pillars which were destroying their grain crops, no doubt also the sheep farmers who helped to bring in stoats and weasels to enable them to grow wool and mutton, instead of rabbits. There is still no general principle underlying the work, and not sufficient knowledge of the possibilities of each problem.

Part II NATURALISATION OF ANIMALS

In Chapters III to VI species which have become thoroughly established are distinguished by an asterisk.

Chapter III

MAMMALIA

OF the 48 species of Mammalia which have been introduced into New Zealand, 44 have been brought in purposely by human agency, and four accidentally. The latter are the mouse and three species of rats, but one of the latter, the Maori rat (Mus exulans), has been exterminated since European settlement began.

The following 25 species are truly feral at the present time in certain districts, some in limited areas, others very widely distributed: wallaby, common opossum, sooty opossum, pig, horse, red deer, fallow deer, Sambur deer, wapiti, white-tailed deer, moose, cattle, sheep, goats, chamois, cat, ferret, stoat, weasel, black rat, brown rat, mouse, rabbit, hare and hedgehog. The following three have been some- what recently introduced, but cannot be said to have been naturalised yet: Japanese deer, black-tailed deer and thar.

The classification adopted in the succeeding list is that used by Frank E. Beddard in the Cambridge Natural History, 1902.

Order MARSUPIALIA Family MACROPODID^

Apparently about 12 species of marsupials have been introduced into New Zealand at various times, but only three species have established themselves and become feral. These are a wallaby and two species of phalangers, which are popularly known as opossums. Those who introduced them knew little or nothing about the exact relationships or the systematic position of these animals and no one seemed to have thought it worth while to identify them. The informa- tion about them is, and always has been, very vague; they were introduced by acclimatisation societies, private individuals and dealers, under various popular names, as kangaroos, bush kangaroos, wallabies, rock wallabies, etc., but the importance of knowing and recognising

26 MAMMALIA

their specific distinctness with all that this involves in difference of habits, never troubled the introducers.

"Common Scrub or Black-tailed Wallaby (Macropus ualabatus) In 1867 the Auckland Society had three wallabies in their gardens, and a fourth was added in 1874; but there is no possibility of identi- fying the species, and there is no record of what came of them.

In the same year A. M. Johnson brought over some from Tasmania for the Canterbury Society. A Christchurch newspaper dated April, 1870, says:

The merit of the introduction into Canterbury province of the brush- kangaroo of Tasmania is due to Captain Thomson, and from the thriving condition of those in the Society's gardens, their adaptability to the pro- vince has been proved, whilst their increase has been such as to now render their liberation desirable in suitable localities.

I cannot help thinking that this is the species which Mr Michael Studholme either imported direct from Tasmania, or bought from the Canterbury Society, and liberated at Waimate, South Canterbury. There they have increased to an extraordinary extent. Mr E. C. Studholme writing to me in February, 1916, says:

I can just remember seeing them turned loose here, two does and one buck being the number liberated. For a week or two they hung about the homestead, after which they were not seen for about two years, when some one sighted them on the hill near Waimate Gorge. They gradually spread along the adjoining hills, and are now to be found as far north as Bluecliffs. It is very hard to estimate the number there are at the present time, but it is quite safe to say there are thousands of them. Parties which go out shooting have killed as many as seventy in a day or two. They live chiefly in the bush, scrub, and fern about the gullies and gorges, coming out in the evenings to feed in the open ground. Their food chiefly consists of grass, but they are very hard on certain trees, barking many of them, particularly the Ohaus or five-leaf (Panax arbor ewri). There are well-defined tracks through all the bushes and scrub they frequent, much on the lines of pig tracks. I understand they are quite easy to snare, a good many being caught in that manner. If not kept in check they would, no doubt, become a great nuisance to farmers. Some years ago I sent the late F. C. Tabart of Christchurch (who was a Tasmanian) one for eating, and he wrote me saying it was a delicacy. Personally I have never eaten the meat, but the tails make very good soup. The skins of those taken in Winter make splendid rugs, being very heavy in fur, and they are much sought after. I believe they are not a wallaby, but scrub-kangaroo, as they are quite large, some of the old bucks weighing over 60 Ibs.

About 1870, Sir George Grey introduced a number of species of marsupials into the island of Kawau, and among these was a wallaby (there is no record of where it came from) which increased in an almost incredible manner. Colonel Boscawen informs me that

MARSUPIALIA 27

these animals have all been killed off, "except the small brown rock- wallaby, of which very few are now left." This latter species (Macropus ualabatus) was also imported to Auckland by Mr John Reed, who liberated them on Motutapu Island, where they are still common. They also crossed the narrow neck of land to Rangitoto Island, where they found a haven of rest, and where they are now abundant. Colonel Boscawen says: "The Wallaby furnishes great sport in shooting, and it is harder to hit than a rabbit, as when driven the animal does not hop, but goes on all fours and dodges from side to side, running at a great rate." Mr Cheeseman tells me that when the Island of Kawau was sold, the new owners encouraged shooting parties to go down — indeed contracts were let to kill the marsupials off the island — and the slaughter was great. One informant, whose name I have lost, told me that even in Sir George Grey's time, as many as two hundred wallabies would be killed in a battue. This gentleman considered them to be useless creatures, fit neither for food nor fur. The consensus of opinion is that the flesh is not par- ticularly attractive, but that the tails make excellent soup. This same informant told me that at Kawau they ate out most of the vegetation, and starved out most of the other animals, being assisted in this by the hordes of opossums. They came out at nights in the fields, grazing like sheep, and in the summer went into the garden, stripping it of fruit and vegetables.

There are still a few left about Kawau, not more than a dozen or two, according to Colonel Boscawen.

Pademelon Wallaby (Macropus thetidis)

The Auckland Society had some specimens of this species in 1869, but the number is not specified, nor what came of them.

Kangaroo (Macropus species)

Under this name various animals were introduced and liberated, but it is quite impossible to identify the species.

Note, du Petit-Thouars, who visited New Zealand in 1838, says in the account of his voyage (p. 115): " Kangaroos have multiplied very well, but it is much to be regretted that there, as in New Holland, the colonists have not taken the trouble to look after them and increase their numbers, instead of leaving them to perish." I have no idea what animals he is referring to.

The Canterbury Society received a pair of kangaroos from the Rev. R. R. Bradley in 1866, and in 1868 a single large specimen from Sir George Grey. The Society's Report for 1872 states that there were "about 15 " in the gardens, but no further information is vouchsafed.

28 MAMMALIA

The Otago Society introduced one specimen in 1867, and apparently others were privately introduced but not recorded, for the late Mr F. Deans (Curator of the Society) wrote me in 1890:

I do not know when these were liberated, but in 1869 I saw one on several occasions where the Northern Cemetery (Dunedin) now is ; he went bounding out of that gully while I was passing down to my work. I heard of one or two having been killed by dogs in the gully above the rifle range.

In 1868 Mr Christopher Basstian liberated three specimens on the Dunrobin Station, but nothing was heard of them afterwards. In the same year the captain of a vessel brought three kangaroos to the Bluff, one male and two females. These were purchased by the Southland Acclimatisation Society and liberated on the range of hills there. Nothing further was ever heard of them.

Wallaroo or Euro (Macropus robustus)

Some of these kangaroos were introduced into Kawau by Sir George Grey in the sixties, but there is no subsequent record of their occurrence there.

Rock Wallaby (Petrogale xanthopus ?)

In 1873 tne Auckland Society received a rock wallaby from Sir James Fergusson, which was quite distinct from any previously recorded, and which it is surmised belonged to the above species. There is no later report of it.

Kangaroo Rat (Potorous tridactylus)

The Auckland Society introduced this species in 1867, but no later report of the Society mentions them.

Family PHALANGERIDJE * Common Opossum, Grey Opossum, Brush-tailed Opossum, or

Vulpine Phalanger (Trichosurus vulpecula; Phalangista vulpina) *Sooty Opossum (Trichosurus fuliginosus)

The Australian and Tasmanian phalangers, or, as they are popularly called "opossums," which are now so common in many forest- covered parts of New Zealand were first introduced into Southland by private individuals, and a few later on into other districts by some of the societies. Details of these early introductions are somewhat inexact and difficult to obtain. One report (Wellington Acclimatisa- tion Society, 1892) says:

These animals were first liberated in the bush behind South Riverton in 1858 by Mr Basstian. Some years after, one or two opossums (presumably Australian Grey Opossums) escaped from confinement in the same neigh- bourhood. In 1889 they were found to have increased enormously.

MARSUPIALIA 29

Mr T. D. Pearce of Invercargill writes (and August, 1915): "The opossums in Southland owe their origin, not to the Council, but to private enterprise. They were liberated between 1865 and 1868 in the Longwoods by Mr Christopher Basstian, who brought them from Victoria or Tasmania." Mr J. L. Watson of Invercargill writes (October, 1890) : " One pair were liberated by the late Captain Hankin- son atWaldeck,Riverton,in 1875 or J876. They have increased marvel- lously and are plentiful in the South Longwoods." This, no doubt, refers to a later introduction, and Mr C. Basstian was evidently the first person to liberate them in New Zealand. The Auckland Society imported some (number not stated) in 1869; five more in 1874-75; and four more in 1876. There is no record as to where they were liberated. Most of these came through Sir George Grey; who liberated several grey opossums on Kawau.

In 1892 the Wellington Society obtained 19 black Tasmanian opossums (T. fuliginosus), and liberated them on the ranges behind Paraparaumu.

In 1895 the Otago Society obtained 12 silver-grey opossums ( T. vulpeculd) from Gippsland, and liberated them in the Catlins district.

This appears to complete the record of introductions.

By 1890 these animals had increased to a great extent in the forest covering the Southern Longwood Range, and the Southland Society caught and distributed in that year some 236 to " the Auckland Islands, Stewart Island, various districts of Otago (including the Te Anau and West Coast Sounds region), North and South Canterbury, West Coast of South Island, Nelson, Wellington and Gisborne." In suc- ceeding years more were obtained and distributed throughout other parts of New Zealand, e.g. to Kapiti and Wainui-o-mata in 1893, and to Taranaki in 1896. For the last 30 or 40 years grey opossums have been very abundant on Kawau. In 1893, Captain Bollons, in N.Z.G.S. ' Hinemoa,' liberated 72 opossums in the West Coast Sounds. They are now abundant from far north of Auckland to Stewart Island. In all localities they appear to have increased to a great extent, becoming so abundant in some parts that people began to destroy them for their skins, while others — especially the Acclimatisation Societies — claimed protection for them and demanded the introduction of restric- tive legislation. Some idea of their increase may be gathered from the statement made by the President of the Otago Society that in 1912 no less than 60,000 skins were taken in the Catlins district alone. Mr R. S. Black of Dunedin, a well-known exporter of rabbit and other skins, tells me this number is not an over-estimate.

W. W. Smith (3ist July, 1918) reports opossums as common about New Plymouth. They feed on the leaves of the hou-hou (Panax

3o MAMMALIA

arboreum) and come to the shed where horsefeed is kept, and help themselves to the oats.

Protection and Legislation. In 1891, protection of the opos- sums was urged on the Government by an Invercargill merchant who stated (in Southland Times of 2Oth January) that some New Zealand skins were worth los. each, and he noted that the supply of skins from Australia and Tasmania was diminishing.

At the same time complaints began to be made by settlers in bush districts that the opossums were robbing their fields and orchards, and destroying plantations — apparently an attempt to justify the destruction of the animals which was then commencing. Such a charge was not supported by evidence. On the other hand Mr T. C. Plante of Melbourne, writing to the Premier of New Zealand on the subject (in 1891) says:

Tasmania is the orchard of Australia, yet so little harm is caused by this animal and so well is its commercial value appreciated, that a close season is prescribed for it, and indeed for all marsupials. Although the species of Victoria yield a fur of little value, except such as live in the cold and mountainous parts, the case is different with the Tasmanian species, which are of much greater value ; the animal is larger, producing fur denser and of much better quality, and the colour is black or reddish-black. Now this is the kind that has been introduced into New Zealand, and from specimens caught in Riverton bush that have been shown to me, I can vouch that in New Zealand they grow even larger and produce fur of better quality. At the October (1890) fur sales Tasmanian skins realised up to 8*. 6d. each.

Mr Plante recommended trapping from June to September when the fur is fully grown, with a close season during the summer months.

Owing to the increasing destruction which went on in succeeding years in all districts where opossums were found, the societies interested brought pressure to bear on the Government, and in 1911 an Order in Council was issued (Gazette, i6th November), declaring these animals to be "Imported Game within the meaning of the Animals Protection Act, 1908." Thus it became illegal to catch or destroy them. By this time, however, the settlers in bush districts — at least in Otago — had found the trapping of opossums a very profitable business, and though they do not appear in published returns of exports, the probability is that their skins were classed and counted with rabbit-skins. Accordingly they set to work through their repre- sentatives in Parliament and got the restrictions removed. By Gazette notices of 22nd August, 1912, it was stated that "opossums of every variety shall cease to be deemed to be imported game," and "all protection of opossums has consequently been removed, and they may be taken or killed without restriction, and their skins sold." This

MARSUPIALIA 31

see-sawing legislation immediately produced an outcry from all the societies in the country, and so much feeling was expressed that the Government reconsidered their decision and another Order was issued on yth August, 1913, declaring opossums to be absolutely protected in certain specified counties — practically in all the bush-covered districts in New Zealand. A further warrant was issued in 1916 absolutely protecting opossums in the Wellington Acclimatisation District.

The position therefore in I9I91 briefly was as follows:

Opossums have ceased to be imported game and they have been abso- lutely protected in certain areas. There is therefore no existing law in force giving power to declare an open season for these animals unless they were again declared to be either imported or native game, and this is not prac- ticable as they would then automatically be protected in parts of the Dominion where protection is not desired ; there being no existing power to enable them to be declared imported game in part only of the Dominion.

In spite of these regulations it is the opinion of some at least of the societies that the law is habitually broken and that the protection is very imperfect, and the Wellington Society in its report for 1915 says that "opossums are being slaughtered wholesale." I learn also from the Comptroller of Customs that the number and value of opossum skins exported during the year ended 3ist December, 1915, was as follows:

Wellington 173 skins valued at £43

Nelson 191 „ „ 48

Dunedin 2115 „ „ 361

It is known that thousands more go out of the country, nominally as rabbit-skins.

Food, Habits, etc. Mr F. Hart of Round Hill, who had a long experience in catching opossums for the Southland Society, wrote a report on the habits of these animals to Mr Eustace Russell of Invercargill, from which I extract the following. The technical names of the plants given are added by myself:

The food the opossum lives on is chiefly seeds of Broadleaf (Grtselinia), Kamai (Weinmannia), Broad -gum (Panax), Maple (Pittosporum), Rata blos- soms (Metrosideros), Supplejack berries (Rhipogonum), Fuchsia, Mako-mako (Aristotelia), and practically all the seeds and blossoms that grow in this part of the bush. The opossum is not a grass-eating animal. They will eat white, or red clover, sweetbriar shoots, and seeds, but if an opossum is caged up and fed on grass, he will die of starvation. Also, if he were fed on turnips, it would take as much to feed one sheep, in quantity, as would feed twelve opossums. When I and my brother were catching 1 For recent regulations (May, 1921) see Appendix A, p. 556.

32 MAMMALIA

opossums for the Society, we fed them on carrots, boiled wheat, bread, boiled tea-leaves with sugar, and anything sweet.

The damage the opossums would do running at large would be very little, seeing that they never come on to open country. The animal is blamed for barking apple-trees, but the opossum does not bark a tree. He might scratch the bark with his teeth, but he does not strip it off. The opossum has one young one once a year. The young one is from five to six months old before it leaves its mother, and is very nearly half-grown. The first four months it is carried in its mother's pouch, and after it leaves the pouch it rides on the mother's back, until it is able to look after itself. The proper season for catching opossums would be from April to the end of July; that would save destroying so many young ones.

Mr Hurrell of Ararata (Hawera) tells me they are destructive to fruit trees in his district, eating the shoots in spring-time and the fruit in autumn. This applies to apples and plums. At Kawau, they were reported as very destructive to the shoots of young plants, and to fruit.

Colonel Boscawen of Auckland, who is a most reliable authority, states that as long as there is plenty of green stuff available, opossums do not interfere with fruit, but that the damage they are often credited with is the work of rats.

On Kapiti Island they feed extensively on Kohekohe (Dysoxylum spectabile), Mahoe (Melicytus ramiflortis), Passiflora tetrandra and Fuchsia excorticata, trees of the latter species being sometimes com- pletely destroyed by them.

In " Nature Notes" in the Lyttelton Times of i9th October, 1912, by Mr Jas. Drummond this passage occurs:.

Mr A. J. Blakiston, Manager Orari Gorge Estate, South Canterbury, where opossums are very plentiful, says: "My experience here is that they do very little damage. The garden adjoins the native bush and in the fruit season they eat and knock down some fruit, but do us no great harm."

Mr Dudley le Souef, Director of the Zoological Gardens, Mel- bourne, writes :

Opossums are protected in Tasmania for half the year, in Victoria all the year round, and in South Australia and New South Wales for half the year during the breeding season. We find them only occasionally troublesome in apple, pear and peach orchards; but as they are easily snared and shot, one seldom hears of any complaints even from the large orchard districts1.

1 All orchardists are not of this opinion as the following extract from an Auckland letter shows :

" If you want to see how opossums and fruit trees thrive together, take a run down to Motutapu. Opossums you will see, but it will need a guide to show you where the fruit trees were planted. I have several acres in orchard, which today is free from Opossums, and needs only the regular care to combat moth, scale, scab, mildew, blight, dieback, fungus, leech, collar rot, birds, rabbits, picnickers

MARSUPIALIA 33

Professor Flynn of Hobart states that even with the protection given to the opossum in Tasmania their position in the State is seriously endangered. It is estimated that 100,000 were killed in 191 1 for their skins.

Ring-tailed Opossum (Pseudochirus peregrimis) The Canterbury Society introduced two of these animals in 1867, but do not seem to have liberated them.

Family DASYURID^: Australian Native Cat (Dasyurus viverrirmis)

In 1868 the Canterbury Society received two of these animals from a Captain Thomson. Presumably they were not liberated, as there is no further record of them. The introduction of hurtful carnivorous animals, except under Government sanction, has always been forbidden

in New Zealand.

Family DIDELPHYIDJE

Bandicoot (Perameles obesuld)

The Auckland Society obtained some bandicoots, how many is not specified, from a Mr E. Perkins in 1873, DUt there is no record as to what was done with them. These were probably the short-nosed bandicoot (Perameles obesuld) which is common in Australia and Tasmania.

Order UNGULATA

Family *Pigs; Wild Boar (Sus scrofa)

The first pigs landed in New Zealand were two little ones which De Surville presented to the Chief of the natives at Doubtless Bay in December, 1769. It is not known what happened to these early juvenile immigrants.

Captain Cook introduced pigs on his second voyage to New Zealand as he states that while in Queen Charlotte Sound in June, 1773, "Captain Furneaux put on shore, in Cannibal Cove, a boar and two breeding sows, so that we have reason to hope this country will, in time, be stocked with these animals, if they are not destroyed by the natives before they become wild, for, afterwards, they will be in no danger."

and small boys. These I can manage to fix during the daylight, but cannot see why a set of cranks, who have nothing of their own to destroy, should compel me to sit up at night to shoot further vermin. If I am counted out in the assumption, will some ' boobs ' join me in bringing pressure on the Government, for the intro- duction of rattlesnakes, tigers and other interesting subjects, because the rattle and claws are beautiful, and the meat would compete with local grown bully?"

34 MAMMALIA

Forster, in his Journal (vol. I, p. 221), says "they were turned into the woods to range at their own pleasure." In the following year, October, 1774, he says (vol. n, p. 467):

We took the opportunity to visit the innermost recesses of West Bay, in order to be convinced, if possible, whether there was any probability that the hogs, brought thither about a year before, would ever stock those wild woods with numerous breeds. We came to the spot where we had left them, but saw not the least vestiges of their having been on the beach, nor did it appear that any of the natives had visited this remote place; from whence we had room to hope, that the animals had retreated into the thickest part of the woods.

On 2nd November when off Cape Kidnappers Cook gave some pigs to natives who came in their canoe.

On his third voyage, he gave a boar and sow to a native chief (?) in February, 1777, and they made him a promise not to kill them. He adds: "The animals which Captain Furneaux sent on shore here, and which soon after fell into the hands of the natives, I was now told were all dead." I think, however, that this refers chiefly to the goats, for he says: "I was afterwards informed by the two youths who went away with us, that Tiratou, a popular chief amongst them, had one of the sows in his possession." There is little doubt that the wild pigs of the South Island, "Captain Cooks" as they came to be called, were the progeny of those originally left at Cannibal Cove, though Cook himself says in 1777: "I could get no intelligence about the fate of those I had left in West Bay and in Cannibal Cove, when I was here in the course of my last voyage." They have in later years had their numbers added to, and their breed modified by pigs which escaped from settlers, but the type remained dominant, and is still found in most wild parts of the country in great abundance.

Dieffenbach (in 1839) states that "the natives had come from Cannibal Cove to catch pigs, which overrun the island" of Motuaru.

The North Island wild pigs, which are also abundant in nearly all wild country from Cook Strait to North Cape, are largely the progeny of animals given to the natives in later years. Governor King (of New South Wales), during his visit to New Zealand, in 1793, gave the natives at the Bay of Islands, ten young sows and two boars. Dieffenbach states that these animals were mistaken by them for horses, they having some vague recollection of those which they had seen on board Captain Cook's vessels. They forthwith rode two of them to death; and a third was killed for having entered a burying-ground. A very old man, who had known Captain King, related this singular story to me. The introduction

UNGULATA 35

of the pigs may have been correctly reported, only Dieffenbach is not very trustworthy, and his credulity seems to have been played on as regards the horses ; it is most improbable that any horses were on board either the ' Resolution ' or the 'Adventure.'

There is no doubt that the abundance of wild pigs in the country was of great value to explorers, particularly to prospectors, and also to shepherds, miners and back-block settlers. Dieffenbach says: "the natives have great quantities of pigs, which have run wild, but are easily caught by dogs" (this was in the Piako).

Dr Monro, who accompanied Mr Tuckett on his trip through Otago in 1844, speaking of the hill country south-west of Saddle Hill, says: "There is a famous cover for pigs, too, between the upper part of the Teiari (Taieri) Valley and the sea .... The whalers come up the river in their boats and kill great numbers of pigs here; as the Maoris told us."

As to the breeds of these wild pigs, it is evident that they were quite distinct in the two islands, due, of course, to their different origin. Mr Robert Scott, M.P. for Central Otago, writing me in January, 1916, says:

They were originally a variety of the Tamworth breed, long snout, razor-backed, built for speed rather than for fattening, quick and agile in movement, as I have often seen when watching two boars fighting, and as many a dog found to his cost. The predominating colour was red, or sandy red, with some black, and a few black and white, but these may have come from an occasional tame boar which strayed and became wild. At the time when they were most numerous (in Otago) they were decidedly gregarious, usually three or four generations running together in mobs numbering from half a dozen up to forty or even fifty. When attacked by dogs, if cover, such as flax, scrub or high grass was handy, they made for it and would form a circle, with the older pigs on the outside ring, and the younger ones in the centre for greater protection. The boars, particularly old ones, lived alone and roamed far and wide. The habits of the wild pig were clean, and in the case of those tamed exceptionally so.

Angas in Savage Life and Scenes in Australia and New Zealand , vol. n, p. 37 (published in 1847), says: "The New Zealand pigs are generally black ; and on the approach of a European they erect their bristles, and, grunting, gallop off like wild boars." Dieffenbach says :

Pigs have only of late been generally introduced into many parts of the country, and in some places where tribes have been broken up they are found wild in large numbers .... The New Zealand pigs are a peculiar breed, with short heads and legs and compact bodies.

They were evidently quite distinct from the "Captain Cooks" of the South Island.

3—2

36 MAMMALIA

The Rev. Richard Taylor (in The Past and Present of New Zealand, in 1868) states that:

there are three kinds of pigs which have been naturalised, whether the produce of the original pair left by Captain Cook, or from later importa- tions it is impossible to say. The ordinary one, which has stocked the forest, is black, with a very long snout, almost resembling that of a Tapir ; this pig was probably the original one. The next is a grey one, commonly known by the name of Tonga tapu, and may therefore be supposed to have been thence derived. The third variety is generally of a reddish brown, marked with lateral black or dark stripes, running the whole length of the body.

Taylor was neither a good observer, nor much of a naturalist, and accepted a great deal of information without sifting its accuracy ; still the above may be quite correct for the part of New Zealand which he knew.

Mr Robert Gillies, writing in 1877, says: "In 1848 (the year of the settlement of Otago) wild pigs were very common on the site of Dunedin." In 1854, he and a party killed 70 pigs at the back of Flagstaff in two days.

The long-pointed snout, long legs and non-descript colours of the true wild pig showed them to be quite a different breed from the settlers' imported pig. Their flesh tasted quite different from pork, being more like venison than anything else.

Mr Jas. D. Drummond quotes Mr E. Hardcastle of Christchurch on this subject:

In most parts of the Dominion black is the commonest colour of wild pigs, and he believes that the Berkshire probably was the dominant type in the pigs of our early days. The red coat of the Tarn worth type has defied time. It has lost most of its lustre but he thinks that nobody can doubt that the sandy, long-snouted wild pig has Tamworth blood in its veins.

Black pigs with a white stripe over the back or the shoulder were plentiful in Canterbury. The markings still may be found in that province and in other parts of the Dominion.

" These pigs," Mr Hardcastle writes, " were ascribed to an original cross between black pigs and white pigs, but there are in England at least two breeds with those markings, and probably some of these were introduced with other ancestors of our wild pigs. The Hampshire has a white belt round its body, including the shoulder and the front-legs; the saddle- back, or white-shouldered pig, which now is being brought under notice in England, does not seem to have as much white as the Hampshire has."

Mr E. C. d'Auvergne, formerly of Rangiora, and now of Waihoa Forks, Waimate, South Canterbury, states that the late Captain Forster, of Oxford, imported some white-shouldered pigs from England

UNGULATA 37

many years ago and gave one to Mr d'Auvergne's father. From these facts, Mr Hardcastle builds up the theory that the white-shouldered pig amongst the wild New Zealand pigs is the descendant of a distinct breed.

"Perhaps the most interesting specimen of the wild pig in this Do- minion," he adds, "is the blue pig found in the Mount Grey and Karetu districts, North Canterbury. The blue colour is produced by a blend of apparently equal numbers of white and black hairs. So fixed is the type that blue pigs may be found in a litter with blacks or black and whites. The blue pig, evidently, is the result of a cross between a black pig and a white pig, and the progeny crossed and inbred until the two breeds are absolutely blended as far as colour is concerned."

Mr J. Drummond (1907) says:

They multiplied astonishingly, and enormous numbers assembled in uninhabited valleys far from the settlements. At Wangapeka Valley, in the Nelson Province, Dr Hochstetter in 1860, saw several miles ploughed up by pigs. Their extermination was sometimes contracted for by experi- enced hunters, and Dr Hochstetter states that three men in twenty months, on an area of 250,000 acres, killed no fewer than 25,000 pigs, and pledged themselves to kill 15,000 more.

Even much earlier they must have been very abundant, both tame and wild, for nearly every sealing and whaling vessel which visited these islands between 1800 and 1830 took away quantities of pork as part of the cargo to Sydney.

Aston (1916) speaks of the wild pigs in the high country of Marlborough as being remarkably tame, apparently from never seeing human beings.

Two sows, in response to our grunts, came out of the bush on to the ridge, and as we remained perfectly still, they came up close and smelt us. My companion made a grab at one leg, and pig and man went rolling down the hill together.

At the present time they are still common in nearly all bush country which is not too near settlement, and to those who like the element of danger in their hunting they afford good sport. They are usually pursued by dogs, often especially trained for the purpose, which after a time succeed in bailing up their quarry. They prefer to take their stand in the hollow of a tree or some such locality, and an old boar will often do considerable damage to the dogs before he is despatched. The orthodox manner of attack is to run in and stab them, but a man without a gun has little chance if he ventures to close quarters with a bailed-up boar.

As regards the Southern Islands, pigs were landed on the Auckland Islands in 1807 by Captain A. Bristow, and were reported as numerous by Hooker in 1840, and by Enderby in 1850. Captain Musgrave, who

38 MAMMALIA

was wrecked on the Auckland Islands in 1865, found no traces of wild pigs, however. More recently Captain Bollons of the 'Hinemoa,' and others have landed and liberated pigs. Hooker reported them as feeding chiefly on Pleurophyllum criniferumy while McCormick, who was surgeon on the ' Erebus,' states they fed on Stilbocarpa polaris. Waite, writing in 1909, says :

There can be small doubt that the introduction of pigs to the Auckland Islands has already resulted in considerable havoc among the ground- nesting birds, by destroying both eggs and young. Traces of pigs were very plentiful, not only their spoor but their rootings also being abundantly apparent. Native plants are also suffering, for we found whole patches turned over, Bulbinella and Pleurophyllum evidently being favourites. On several occasions we came across the pigs themselves, but they were very wild and were approached with difficulty. Of four seen on one occasion, one was black, two white, and one pied. One of them was shot, and proved to be a lean, long-legged, and long-snouted animal, apparently reverting to the characteristics of a wild type.

In 1865 Captain Norman liberated three pigs on Campbell Island, but they appear to have died off.

Dr Cockayne informs me that in the Chatham Islands, the magnificent forget-me-not, known as the Chatham Island lily (Myoso- tidium nobile), formerly grew commonly as a coastal plant, forming a fringe of vegetation round the islands, but that it has been nearly exterminated by wild pigs — aided in part by wild cattle — so that it is now found only in inaccessible spots. They have also helped to reduce the number of plants and nearly exterminate Aciphytta Traversii, one of the most characteristic plants of the Chatham Islands, by digging it up and eating the succulent tap-root. Formerly two species of spear-grass — Aciphytta squarrosa and A. Colensoi — were extremely abundant, especially in the South Island. Vast quanti- ties of these plants were grubbed out by the wild pigs, which are particularly fond of their succulent and aromatic root-stocks and roots.

Aston states that they eat down Gaya Lyattii. They root up the ground wherever the bracken fern (Pteris aquilina, var. esculentd) is found, the starchy rhizomes furnishing abundant food. They are also especially fond of the thick root-stocks of spear-grasses (Aciphytta) and other umbelliferous plants, such as Ligusticum and Angelica.

In some parts of New Zealand wild pigs are destructive to sheep. I am informed that in North Canterbury an old boar has been seen to come down from his hill fastness into a paddock in which were a number of ewes, charge into the midst of them, and kill two of them, "seemingly," said my informant, "more out of mischief than for

UNGULATA 39

want of food." Mr W. R. Bullen of Kaikoura writes me in August, 1916:

It is a well-known fact that wild pigs are very destructive among newly born lambs. I myself have watched a wild boar working a lamb like a dog so as to get straight above him on a hillside, and catch the lamb with a downhill rush, as the latter was too nimble for the boar to catch him other- wise. I think, however, that an old sow with a litter of young ones does more damage, as they follow up the ewes when lambing. We always en- deavour to reduce their number before lambing commences both by hunting and laying poison. Phosphorus is usually employed in the latter case.

Mr Kennedy of Greentown, Kaikoura, supplements this informa- tion, and informs me that when boars once begin to eat lambs, they will travel long distances to get them; fortunately the habit is not common. He thinks the habit is learned by their finding hoggetts which have got caught and hung up in lawyers (Rubus), and dying there. Sows that have a litter of young ones also attack and destroy lambs, but they do not travel any distance to do so. He adds that pigs are very destructive to rabbits, eating the young ones when they take refuge in shallow burrows; and states that where pigs are abundant, very few rabbits are to be found.

The following species of native plants, in addition to those named, are eaten by wild pigs: Gastrodia Cunnunghamii and G. sesamoides and Marattia fraxinea.

Family CAMELID^; Alpaca (Lama huanacos)

Two of these animals were imported by the Otago Society in 1878, and were liberated on the property of Mr John Reid of Elderslie, Oamaru. They never increased.

Family EQUIDJE * Horse (Equus caballus)

It seems rather strange that in such a small country as New Zealand there should be any wild horses, but there are several areas very inaccessible and rarely visited, where escapes appear to have congregated and bred. The natives frequently have very imperfect fences, and stallions have from time to time got away and run free. Mr E. Phillips Turner of the Forestry Department and in charge of Scenic Reserves, informed me (January, 1916) that "wild horses occur on Mt Tarawera, round the base of Ruapehu, and in many places on the volcanic plateau." Mr Yarborough of Kohu Kohu states that at one time wild horses were numerous in the bush country of Hokianga

4o MAMMALIA

and the west coast of the Auckland peninsula. The natives used to snare them, but they were mostly so inbred as to be valueless for any purpose. They are now (1916) very scarce.

Horses were first imported into the Chatham Islands in the forties, and were commonly wild in the unsettled districts in 1868. There are probably still a few of them on the table land.

Zebra. (Equus zebra)

Sir Geo. Grey, among his numerous other introductions, imported a pair of zebras into Kawau about 1870, apparently in the hope that they would breed. But one got killed, and the other had to be shot.

Family CERVIDJE

The desire to stock the mountain country of New Zealand with large game, so that the Briton's delight in going out and killing something might be satisfied, has led to the introduction of no fewer than ten kinds of deer, in addition to other large animals. Of these, four species — red deer, fallow deer, white-tailed deer and Sambur deer — have established themselves in different parts of the country and are included among the animals for which licences to shoot are now issued. By law they are strictly preserved, but much poaching has always been and still is done. At the same time it must be remembered that the poaching is chiefly done by two classes of people, viz. residents in the neighbourhood of the districts where the game abound, and mere pot-hunters. For the first class it may be said that many farmers, who take no interest in acclimatisation work or in so-called sport, and who were not consulted in any way on the subject, object to the incursions of animals which ignore or break down their fences, harass their stock, and eat their hay and turnips. Therefore some of this destruction of imported game takes the form of reprisals for injury done to crops, fences and stock. There is practically no poaching on the property of private individuals such as is characterised by the name in the mother country, and con- sequently destruction of game in New Zealand is not looked upon as a heinous offence, as are breaches of the iniquitous game-laws of Britain. The game in New Zealand are either the property of the State or of the acclimatisation societies, and public opinion on the subject of their destruction is lax in comparison with what it is in countries where game is looked upon as something reserved for and sacred to the sporting instincts of a small class. Still a very fair measure of protection is ensured to the animals, and they have increased in most districts where they have been liberated. It is recognised, too, that a wealthy class of tourists can be induced to

UNGULATA 41

visit the country, if, in addition to scenic attractions, there can be added those things which appeal to the sporting instincts of humanity. This has led the Government of the Dominion in recent years to devote some attention to the subject of introducing various additional kinds of big game to those already brought in by the acclimatisation societies. Several experiments have been made in this direction, and most of them seem likely to be successful.

* Red Deer (Cervus elaphus)

(a) According to Mr Huddleston, whose father was curator of the Nelson Acclimatisation Society, a red deer stag and doe were landed in that district in the fifties. The doe was killed, but the stag remained near Motueka, and ultimately joined those which were introduced in 1861. In Judge Broad's account of Nelson, he states that Felix Wakefield landed one stag in 1851. He further states that in September, 1854, the first stag was turned out on the hills near the mouth of the Waimea, brought in the ship 'Eagle.' Two hinds were sent for to England.

(b) The next importation of red deer into New Zealand was in February, 1861, when a stag and two hinds, presented by Lord Petre from his park in Essex, England, were landed in Nelson. The progeny of these animals increased and rapidly spread themselves over a great part of the high country in the provincial districts of Nelson and Marlborough — of late years they have further spread into North Canterbury, and over towards the west coast. Mr Hard- castle, who in 1906 wrote a report on the red deer herds in the country, says:

The heads obtained in Nelson are of a good dark colour and fairly massive, but compared with those of Wairarapa and Hawea, they have not the same average of span or spread. . . .Lord Petre 's herd had had no new blood introduced into it for many years, so that a particular type of antler had been fixed from which there is no throwing back.

According to Mr Hardcastle the type of head of the first imported stag continues to persist, and dominates all the deer of the Nelson herd. In 1900 a herd, descended from Nelson deer, was started in the Lillburn Valley, west of the Waiau River, in Southland.

(c) In 1862 a stag and two hinds presented by the Prince Consort to Governor Weld were handed over by him to Dr Featherstone, then Superintendent of Wellington Province. The deer (six in number) were captured in Windsor Park, and housed there for some time as preparation for their long sea voyage. One stag and two hinds were shipped by the 'Triton,' for Wellington, and after a passage of 127 days, during which one hind succumbed, arrived on 6th June, 1862.

42 MAMMALIA

About the same time the remaining three were shipped for Canterbury, but as one only arrived it was forwarded to Wellington to join the other two. For some months these animals were kept in a stable close to "Noah's Ark," Lambton quay, and subsequently Mr C. R. Carter (then M.P. for Wairarapa) arranged to have them conveyed to Wairarapa. Owing to there being no trains in those days, the animals were placed in the crate in which they came from England, and were carted over the Rimutaka Ranges to the Taratahi Plains, where they were handed to Mr J. Robieson. This gentleman, being an Englishman, took a special interest in the animals, and kept them for some considerable time. Early in the year 1863 he liberated the deer on the Taratahi Plains, and for some time they were constant visitors to the farmers, accepting all kinds of food. Later, however, they crossed the Ruamahanga River, and took up their abode on the Maungaraki Ranges, where they rapidly increased. Mr Hardcastle reported in 1906:

The Wairarapa Forest is "probably the best stocked red deer ground on the globe. On Te Awaite run bordering on the East Coast, the deer may now be seen in bunches of up to a hundred head. At the beginning of last year it was estimated that there were fully 10,000 head on the station. According to information given in The Field of September i5th, 1906, the Windsor Park herd" (from which the original stock came), "has been re- plenished from English, Scottish, German and probably Danish stock. The result has produced in the Wairarapa herd, stags that are remarkable for their massive antlers, some of which are of the German type, and others again more resembling the Scottish form. The antlers do not grow to great length, but some are very wide in spread, and there is a great propor- tion of Imperials, the most number of points recorded being 22. The stags

mature their antlers early A number of heads have been shot on Te

Awaite station, showing the abnormal development of the back tines on one antler, such as is seen to be the case of the great Warnham Park stags in England, and is probably due to the highly favourable conditions of climate, food and shelter."

From these ranges some of the finest heads in New Zealand have been secured. There is no doubt whatever that the exceptionally rich lime- stone formation and the English grasses were responsible for the large growth of horn.

(d) In 1871 the Otago Society imported 15 red deer, some of which were sent to the care of Mr Rich of Bushy Park, Palmerston, while seven were liberated on the Morven Hills run east of Lake Hawea. Those at Bushy Park spread over into the Horse Range, but they did not succeed, and no definite explanation of the failure has been given. Probably the country was not high and wild enough; on one side they were encroaching all the time on well-stocked sheep country, and on the other on old-settled farm land, besides which

UNGULATA 43

there were many old diggers still about the neighbourhood. From one cause or another they did not succeed well. Mr Hardcastle states that they are still to be met with on the Horse Range, but they have always been heavily shot by settlers.

The seven which were liberated on the Morven Hills were part of a shipment received from the estates of the Earl of Dalhousie in Forfarshire, Scotland. They are the only lot of pure Scottish red deer in the country. They multiplied at a great rate and have spread over the country between Lakes Wanaka, Hawea and Ohau. They have worked their way up the Hunter and Makarora rivers, across the Haast Pass into South Westland, and right up to the neighbour- hood of Mount Cook. Most of this country runs from 3000 to 7000 feet in height, and much of it is very steep and rugged. But it contains much bush in the valleys and gullies, and the open country is well grassed in summer. Hardcastle says :

The North Otago Stags maintain the true Scottish type of antler, but they grow to much greater length than the antlers of any stags that have been shot in the British Isles. The antlers are also remarkable for their symmetry and perfection in the development of the tines, and particularly the lower tines .... Some magnificent heads have been got, including a 17- and i8-pointer, and two Royals each 46 inches in length of antlers. The coats of the stags are generally shaggy, owing, no doubt, to the severe climate in winter.

Recently (1918) Mr Hardcastle informs me that the record length for an Otago red deer head is 49 inches (J. Forbes, Christchurch) ; record spread 50^ inches (J. Faulks, Makarora); and record points 20 (J. Fraser, Mount Aspiring); "and I think a 2O-pointer was got in the Makarora." In 1895 the Otago Society obtained two fine stags from the Hunt Club, Melbourne, to add to the North Otago herd. I do not know what special strain these belonged to. Again in 1913 the Society imported a stag and six hinds from Warnham Park, England, the object being to introduce new blood into the herds.

(e) One stag was brought over from Hobart to Christchurch in 1867 by Mr A. M. Johnson, and was kept in the Acclimatisation Gardens for a time. In 1897 the Canterbury Society imported nine red deer, but it is not recorded from whence, and liberated them in the gorge of the Rakaia River. They have increased rapidly since, herds of 40 and more having been seen from time to time. Some of the heaviest heads secured in New Zealand have been got from this herd. According to Mr Hardcastle the record length of a head from the Rakaia Gorge is 48^ inches (Williams, England); the record spread 465 inches (G. Sutherland, Christchurch), and the record points 24, from the same head. But in 1918-19 Mr Barrer of Wellington secured one with a length of 50 inches.

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More recent importations have been as follows:

In 1900 the Southland Society received one stag and two hinds from Sir Rupert Clark, Victoria; and in 1901 two stags and eight hinds from the same source. From these, herds were started at Lake Manapouri, and at the Hump, to the west of the Waiau.

In 1903 either seven or eight fawns were obtained from Victoria, presented by Miss Audrey Chirnside of Werribee Park, and were liberated at Mount Tuhua in Westland. In 1906 four more from the same source were added to this herd, and eight were liberated at Lake Kanieri.

In 1903 the Tourist Department obtained eight deer from the Duke of Bedford, and liberated them at Lake Wakatipu. In 1908 four were obtained from Warnham Park, Sussex, England, and were liber- ated at Paraparaumu. In 1909 three were liberated at Dusky Sound.

The five original importations of red deer account for the vast numbers of these animals which are now to be met with in so many mountainous parts of both islands, for many of the societies as well as the Tourist Department have obtained deer from one or other of the original herds and have started new herds in other districts, e.g. the country round Taupo and Rotorua, the West Coast Sounds of the South Island, and Stewart Island, and these are all increasing. In re- gard to the last named locality, six fawns taken from the Wairarapa herd were liberated on the banks of the Fresh Water River at the head of Paterson Inlet in April, 1901. In the following year twelve more from the Werribee Park herd were liberated in the same locality. From a report made for the Southland Acclimatisation Society by Mr Moorhouse, who inspected the Stewart Island herds in 1918, it is evident that the deer are now very numerous in the wooded northern and western parts of the island. Stewart Island is a sanctuary for native birds, and this stocking of the island with deer means the opening up of it to stalkers. Mr Woodhouse says :

Indications to be seen in this big belt of bush clearly go to prove that the deer must be very numerous. Well-beaten tracks lead from the bush to the various clearings, on which grow flax and a coarse tussock. In the bush can be seen their various camping grounds, and the trees and shrubs show where they have been feeding on the barks and leaves.

To the naturalist it is deplorable that an animal should have been introduced into this sanctuary, which compels men with guns — and probably with dogs — to go in, in order to keep them in check to some extent. Writing to me in August, 1918, Mr Hardcastle says:

Deer increase more rapidly in New Zealand than in the northern hemisphere. Whether there is a larger percentage of calves born, I cannot say, probably there is, considering the conditions here. But the large

UNGULATA 45

increase is mainly due to the hinds calving a year earlier. In Europe hinds do not calve until they are three years old ; here they calve at two years. I am speaking of Otago, and the conditions there are not as favourable as further north. At sixteen months (April ist) a young hind is as large as her mother ; and these young animals can only be distinguished by their rounder and neater bodies, and the darker rufous colour of their hair. They are quite big enough therefore to be served by a stag. Further there are not more of these young hinds in a herd than would represent the female progeny of one year. If they did not take the stag till they were twenty-eight months old there would be so many more of them.

The great want of a deer herd is either proper culling by human agency or the presence of carnivora to weed out the old and weakly, but above all to break up the family life and prevent inbreeding. Left alone, deer adopt the family life, and where a hind has once bred she will stay, unless forced away by one means or another. The pioneers of the herd in search of new ground, where there is scope as in Otago, are the big stags, after they have reached their third or fourth year, and are living for ten months away from the hinds. They are followed by young hinds. An old hind on the outskirts of the herd in the line of migration is a rarity. A young stag at twenty-eight months will get a few hinds if he can; a forty months stag will frequently have a good herd, and so will a fifty-two months (four years old) stag. A strong three-year old, that is likely to grow into a good shootable head, will, say in 1918, serve a number of hinds; in 1920 when he is five, he will be serving his own daughters (a stag always makes back to his previous year's rutting ground, if he is not driven off it). In 1922, when he is seven and a quarter years of age, he will be serving his own daughters and grand-daughters! As he only got his royal head at six years, and it may take a few more years to grow it to its maximum weight, he has escaped the stalker until he has done a considerable amount of inbreeding. The opinion of those who have had much experience in Otago is that most of the big heads are of deer that are between eight and twelve years of age. Many of them show signs of their teeth going, and as stags are said to live well over twenty years, one would not expect to see the teeth much worn in the first half of its life. Of course, only a certain percentage of stags get good heads, and, of course, the inferior are left.

In the case of the largest herds attempts are continually being made to thin out the weeds and deer with malformed antlers. Some mal- forms arise from injury to the horns during the velvet stage of growth, but this injury is often due to the fact of the deer being a weedy specimen in the first instance and in poor condition. Polled stags, that is those without antlers at all, are occasionally met with, but these have apparently suffered from lack of food in the early stages of their growth , for there is no doubt that in some parts the country is already greatly overstocked and severe winters reduce the deer to a poor condition. Mr Hardcastle says:

the great majority of malforms are malformed in the skull itself, and not merely in the bones. A common form is for the pedicle to be misplaced,

46 MAMMALIA

nearly always being in front of its proper position, and sometimes as low as just above the brow. The horn of the misplaced pedicle is sometimes a switch, and grows either up or down over the face. Sometimes the pedicle is bent outwards, — I have never seen it bent in or back. Sometimes mal- forms have three distinct pedicles and horns, and four have been found; unicorns are also not uncommon. In nearly all these cases there is no apparent sign of injury, nor would it be possible to misplace the pedicle without killing the animal. The country where malforms appear most in Otago, is open tussock and open birch (Nothofagus) bush. Malforms, except an odd one or two that have probably migrated from more over- stocked country, are not to be found in the rugged gorges of the Hunter or the Makarora. They did not appear in the rough and dense bush country in the Wairarapa until a few years ago, when the bush was more cleared, and sheep competed more strongly with the deer for food. We do not know whether the defects of the skull are hereditary or not, but from the fact that there are so many to be found in different types, one would think they are. Another question is whether the calf is born with the defect, or at what time it begins to manifest itself. Want of nourishment either in quantity or quality of food rapidly leads to degeneration in stags' heads, and in deer generally, but why it should affect the bone of the head in the way it does is remarkable.

It is clear that there are several distinct strains of red deer in the country, recognised chiefly by the form and growth of the antlers, which are chiefly what sportsmen look to. This mixing of breeds probably tends to the production of a strong race, and the efforts of the main societies are directed, often, it must be admitted, rather blindly, to the elimination of defective deer. In the 1918-19 season the Otago Society had 1000 head shot in the Hunter Valley — Makarora herd — and 667 head in 1919-20. The problem is an interesting one from the eugenic standpoint.

The vast number of red deer found in New Zealand enables the various leading societies to offer shooting privileges to sportsmen, who come from all parts to enjoy this form of sport. The attraction of red deer shooting is now to be reckoned as one of the assets of the country from a tourist's point of view.

Effect of deer on the native vegetation. In the North Island it is stated that Fuchsia is the principal food of the deer in spring and summer, but that in winter they take to Koromiko (Veronica salici- folia) and other shrubs. Probably they eat the majority of the native shrubs in the bush, but how far they destroy the vegetation of the higher country is not recorded. They are reported as not caring very much for grass. In the North Otago forest the following are mainly eaten: broadleaf (Griselinia), native gum (species of Panax), ribbon- wood (Gay a Lyallii), various species of Coprosma, pepper tree (Drimys color ata), milk tree (Paratrophis heterophylla) and Tutu (Coriaria).

UNGULATA 47

But when these are scarce they will eat almost any shrub. They will not eat birch or beech (Nothofagus sp.) nor celery- leaved pine (Phyllocladus), till other food is exhausted. In the thickly-stocked districts all the undergrowth of the bush, as high as the deer can reach, is eaten out by them, and this is mostly done in the winter, when the high open country is covered with snow and they take to the forest for food and shelter. For the rest of the year the grass country is in the undisturbed possession of the deer, as they have no sheep to compete with them for the food. Mr B. C. Aston in an account of the crossing of the Ruahine Range in January, 1914, says:

After getting up about 3200 feet in Fagus fusca and Fagus cliffortioides forest, where there was a sprinkling of Phyllocladus alpinus saplings, we found many with the bark rubbed off, which R. A. Wilson (an experienced deer-stalker) informed me was done by the deer, which always select this tree to rub their horns on. Mr Wilson was surprised that the deer in this district had left bunches of Loranthus flavidus and L. tetrapetalus hanging within reach, whereas in the South Island they are so fond of Loranthus, that they are frequently found hanging by the feet, caught in the Fagus trees in an endeavour to jump higher. . . .On an open clearing at a height of 4000 feet, where there was an abundance of Aciphylla squarrosa and Hierochloe redolens growing together, we found the deer had eaten the grass back into the Aciphylla, until the spinous leaves of the latter had pricked their noses.

Mr Hansen, lighthouse keeper at Cape Palliser, reports (April, 1911) on the Waitutumai Creek, the gully of which is here eight miles long, three miles broad, and surrounded by hills from 2000 to 3000 feet high and completely bush-clad:

The terraces have been made passable by the Red Deer, which have

eaten away all the lower branches and foliage There are no pines, ratas,

fuchsias, native currants or other berry-bearing trees, on which many native birds make a living. There are no native birds seen, except a few bush-wrens, and one tui was heard. Silence reigned. The deer, mostly stags, come out of the forest from the middle of September to the end of January, when they are in the 'velvet,' and are very tame.

W. G. Morrison of Hamner Springs in giving evidence before the Royal Commission on Forestry in 1913, said the red deer were very destructive to forests both of indigenous and planted trees. They were particularly fond of Nothopanax Colensoi, and stripped them to a height of 9 ft. — the trees mostly dying. He had counted as many as 15 trees damaged in a space of 20 yards square. They also destroyed larch and Pinus laricio.

* Fallow Deer (Cervus damd)

Hon. S. Thorne George, who lived on Kawau from 1869 to 1884, says that the first fallow deer in the colony were introduced there

48 MAMMALIA

by his uncle Sir Geo. Grey; but he cannot give the exact date of their introduction. In 1864 the Nelson Society received three fallow deer from England, and from these there has descended a well-known herd, but I cannot find any record of the increase and disposal of the original importation. In 1867 the Otago Society introduced two deer, in 1869 twelve, and in 1871 one. All these were liberated on the Blue Mountains, Tapanui, where they have increased to a vast extent, and now form one of the most important herds in New Zealand. Licences to shoot them have been issued for over 25 years. The most recent report (1921) from this district is that so many deer are being shot by the settlers that the herd is threatened with extinction. In 1871 the Canterbury Society had four fallow deer in their gardens, but there is no record now obtainable as to where they came from, nor definitely as to what was done with them. But in later years some were running on the Culverden Estate and two more deer — obtained from Tasmania — were added to them. This herd did not increase, and apparently has been gradually destroyed since. In 1876 the Auckland Society received 28 deer (out of 33 shipped from London), and liberated 18 on the Maungakawa Range, Waikato; while 10 were sent down to Wanganui. The former herd has increased very largely, and is noted for the fine heads of the stags, due, no doubt, to the abundance of food and the favourable climatic conditions. The Wan- ganui herd is now also a large one. On Motutapu in the Hauraki Gulf, there is a very large herd numbering a thousand or more, and these were probably obtained in the first instance from the Waikato herd. Smaller, more recently established herds occur near Timaru, Hokitika and Lake Wakatipu. It is thus seen that the species is widely spread. Mr Hardcastle informs me that the rutting season for fallow deer is about April i3th to i5th, depending upon the weather. Frosty nights and clear days bring both fallow deer and red deer into season a little earlier, while warm weather delays the rut.

Axis Deer or " Chital " (Cervus axis)

In 1867 the Otago Society imported seven of these deer, which were liberated in the Goodwood Bush near Palmerston S. In 1871 another stag was landed and added to the herd, which at that time numbered about 30. In 1881 the inspector reported that he had seen over 40. Then complaints began to come in from the settlers that the deer were a nuisance, and their numbers gradually diminished. Gradually they disappeared, apparently destroyed by the settlers in the district, and none has been seen for the last 20 years. In 1898 the Wellington Society received a pair from the Zoological Society

UNGULATA 49

of Calcutta, and placed them on Kapiti Island in Cook Strait. They had not increased by 1902. In 1907 the Tourist Department liberated five deer at Mount Tongariro in the North Island; and in 1909 five at Dusky Sound in the South Island. No reports have as yet been received regarding either of these experiments.

* Sambur Deer or Sambar (Cervus unicolor) In 1875 tne Auckland Society received a buck from a Mr Lark- worthy, and in the following year a doe. There is no further record of these deer in the Society's reports1. But in the annual report of the Wellington Society for 1894 it is stated:

The Ceylon Elk (Sambur Deer) imported into the Carnarvon district, Manawatu, by Mr Larkworthy, have been brought under the provisions of the Animals Protection Act, and are at present under the control of the Society. It has been reported that the herd now numbers about thirty.

There is no word of these deer in any previous report of the Wellington Society. Then in 1900 the herd is reported to number about 100, " but there is good reason to think that they are really more numerous. . . .A pair of antlers were found on the hills near Cambridge, and two deer were shot there," some 200 miles from Carnarvon.

In 1906 the Wellington Society (Marton Branch) reported that "Stag-shooting (Sambur) was opened for the first time this season in this district,. . .but we fear that numbers of stags have been shot by persons unauthorised to do so." This poaching has gone on regularly for many years past, and though the herd seems now a fairly large one, the local rangers complain of indiscriminate destruc- tion in season and out of season. In 1907 the Tourist Department imported two deer (from Noumea) and liberated them in the Rotorua district, adding to them some others secured in the Manawatu, so as to form the nucleus of a new herd.

* Wapiti or Elk (Cervus canadensis)

Sir George Grey introduced a pair of these deer into Kawau Island some time in the seventies. The doe died, and the buck had

1 The difficulty of getting accurate and authoritative information on this subject is characteristic of the manner in which many of the reports of the acclimatisation societies have been kept. The governing bodies of these societies frequently included enthusiasts who took an interest in the work of introducing what they considered desirable forms of animals ; but the secretaries in many cases were selected for their capacity in keeping the business of the society in order and in conducting corre- spondence. The secretaries and the personnel of the committees were also frequently changed. The result has been a great want of continuity in many cases, so that there is now no consecutive record of the work done. Thus in the case of the Sambur deer referred to, the only record of introduction is that of the two specimens received by the Auckland Society in 1875-76; yet it is almost certain there were others. If not, then all the Sambur in New Zealand up to 1907 were the progeny of one pair, and of course are very closely interbred.

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to be shot as he became dangerous. In 1905 the Tourist Department obtained 10 of these deer, three bucks and seven does (presented by President Roosevelt), and liberated them at the head of George Sound on the S.W. coast of the South Island. The country, which is eminently suitable for all kinds of deer, is very seldom visited. But Mr Moorhouse, Conservator of Fish and Game (Rotorua), who was sent down by the Government in February, 1921, reports that these deer are now well established in the neighbourhood of the Sound. In April, 1921, they are reported to have crossed over into the Lake Te Anau district.

Japanese Deer (Cervus mkd)

In 1885 the Otago Society received three of these deer from Mr J Bathgate, and they were liberated on the Otekaike estate near Oamaru Five years later they were reported as "doing well and growing into a nice little herd." In the report for 1892 it is stated that "little or nothing has been heard about these deer on the Otekaike estate." Apparently they have all been destroyed as there is no further record of them. In 1905 Government obtained six Japanese deer and liberated them on the Kaimanawa Ranges, near Taupo.

Black-tailed Deer ; Mule Deer (Odocoileus hemionus) In 1905, five of these deer, purchased in America, were imported by the Tourist Department and liberated at Tarawera, Hawke's Bay. The Hawke's Bay Society reports them as increasing in March, 1915.

* Virginian Deer; White-tailed Deer (Cariacus virginianus;

Odocoileus virginianus)

The Tourist Department imported 18 of these deer in 1905. Of these nine (two stags and seven hinds) were sent to Port Pegasus on Stewart Island, and nine to the Rees Valley, Lake Wakatipu. There is no further record regarding those in the last named locality; but the herd in Stewart Island has increased greatly, and threatens to destroy much of the vegetation, besides opening up the country — which is a reserve for native birds — to deer-stalkers.

South American Deer (Cariacus chilensis)

In 1870 the Auckland Society received three South American deer, probably of this species, from Mr W. A. Hunt. Beyond the mention of their receipt, there is no further record of them.

* Moose; Elk (Alches machlis)

The first attempt to introduce these animals was made by the Government in 1900, when 14 young ones were shipped on board the 'Aorangi' at Vancouver. Owing, however, to the rough voyage

UNGULATA 51

only four — two bulls and two cows, nine months old — arrived in New Zealand. They were liberated in 1901 near Hokitika, but appear soon to have separated, as in 1903, 'one cow was in one district, another at the gorge of the Hokitika River, while nothing was known of the bulls. In 1913 the cow at the junction of the Hokitika and Trews rivers was "in splendid condition, and as tame as a kitten." The others seem to have disappeared. In 1910 the Government obtained ten more, and these were liberated on the shores of Dusky Sound. Mr Moorhouse found (in February, 1921) that these deer were in considerable numbers round the Sound. Their food seems to consist of certain mosses, and the tops and ends of punga ferns (Cyathea dealbatd).

Family BOVIDJE Gnu (Connocheetes gnu)

Sir George Grey introduced one or more of these quaint animals into Kawau about 1870, but there is apparently no record of what happened to them.

* Ox (Bos taurus)

From the earliest days of settlement, cattle were run in large numbers on the open country, seldom seeing men, and running practically wild. They were gathered together by stockmen at certain times of the year in order to brand the calves, castrate the young bulls, and separate marketable animals. Otherwise they ran wild, each herd or mob occupying its own particular area of country, and this they kept to, except in winter, when they roamed into the forest and fed on Panax, Melicytus, and other trees, of which they are very fond. It was inevitable that numbers of them should become truly wild, escaping altogether from the musterers, and getting right away into the back country. Consequently wild cattle have been very abundant in all the back country for the last seventy years.

Apparently the first recorded introduction of cattle into New Zealand took place at the Bay of Islands, for the Rev. R. Taylor says that Marsden brought them over from New South Wales. This must have been in the twenties of last century. Dr McNab states that on 30th March, 1833, John Bell set out from Sydney for Mana Island with ten head of cattle. He adds:

With the exception of the domestic animals which accompanied the expeditions of Cook and Vancouver, this is the first record of any such having been taken to New Zealand, though it is incredible that sheep, cattle, goats and rabbits were unknown at the shore whaling stations of Preservation, Otago, Cloudy Bay, Queen Charlotte Sound and Kapiti.

4—2

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E. J. Wakefield saw wild cattle in 1839 on tne hills at the entrance of Pelorus Sound. In 1840 he states that they were abundant on Kapiti, and that they were the descendants of some given to the natives there in exchange for flax. I recall in 1868 how they used to come out of the Southland bushes during the winter season to feed on the paddocks of English grass. They raided these during the night, and when disturbed in the morning used to jump the fences and ditches just like deer. The Hon. S. Thorne George, M.L.C., writes (February, 1916): "When I first went to Kawau (1869) there was a large number of wild cattle. The island was originally occupied as a cattle station, but owing to the rough country and heavy bush, very many were lost and became quite wild." Mr A. C. Yarborough of Kohu Kohu informs me (August, 1916) that 40 years ago wild cattle were very numerous in all thebush country, and in those days Hokianga and the West Coast were nearly all covered with bush. The natives used to kill them in large quantities for the sake of their hides, which were valued at from 6s. to 125. each. In later years these wild cattle have been driven further and further back, until they are now found only in the ranges distant from settlement. These cattle are merely the descendants of tame ones which have wandered — the Maoris' fences being usually of a defective character — and are not of any distinct character. Wild cattle are found in the high country between Lake Wakatipu and the West Coast. Their tracks were numerous in the Valley of the Rockburn.

Cattle were first introduced into Chatham Island in 1841, and soon became wild; and they used to be trapped by the natives in the early sixties. Wild cattle are now very numerous on the table land.

In regard to the Southern Islands, cattle were landed on the Auckland Islands in 1850 by Captain Enderby, but they were all killed off by sealers. In 1894, cattle were landed from the ' Hinemoa ' on Enderby Island and Rose Island, where (according to Cockayne) these were about 10 and 15 head respectively in 1903. Aston says that on Enderby Island they have exterminated the tussocks of Poa littorosa. Cattle were landed on Antipodes Island at various times between 1886 and 1900, but they either died or were killed off by cast- aways. Three more were landed in 1903 ; these have disappeared also.

Effect of Cattle on Native Vegetation. Aston, who was over the country in 1914 and 1915, says:

Wild cattle are abundant in unfrequented valleys and gorges of the Tararua Range. They are apparently Hereford cattle gone wild. They eat out many species of native plants, and have destroyed great numbers of Ligusticum dissectum, which is one of the most abundant and characteristic plants of the higher ground.

UNGULATA 53

He adds:

Cattle are particularly fond of certain native trees and shrubs, e.g., Tahoe or Hina hina, Melicytus ramiflorus; Karamu, Coprosma grandifolia and C. tenuifolia\ Broadleaf, Griselinia littoralis, Mangrove, Avicennia officinalis; Tawa, Beilschmiedia tazva; and Karaka, Corynocarpus leevigata.

According to Mr Maxwell, caretaker of the Waipoua Kauri Forest Reserve, cattle eat out the following plants from the undergrowth of the forest: Melicytus ramiflorus, Pittosporum tenuifolium, Hoheria populnea, Coriaria ruscifolia, Corynocarpus leevigata, Panax (Notho- panax) arboreum, Schefflera digitata, Coprosma robusta, Myrsine (Rapanea) Urvillei, Olea lanceolata, Geniostoma ligustrifolia, Solanum aviculare, Veronica salicifolia, Vitex lucens, Freycinetia Banksii, and Cyathea medullaris. In addition to these, cattle chew the leaves of bracken fern (Pteris aquilina), of the flax (Phormium tenax)and cabbage tree (Cordyline australis)\ and occasionally eat Ngaio (Myoporum Icetum) and anise (Angelica gingidium).

* Common Sheep (Ovis sp.)

The first attempt to introduce sheep into New Zealand was made by Captain Cook on his second voyage, and was unsuccessful. He brought away two rams and four ewes from the Cape of Good Hope, but by the time the 'Resolution' entered Dusky Sound in March, 1773, only a ram and an ewe survived, and they were in such a bad state, "suffering from an inveterate sea-scurvy," that their teeth were loose, and they could not eat the green food which was given to them. Forster in his Journalstates that they "were in so wretched a condition, that their further preservation was very doubtful." However, they must have improved, for considering the country about Dusky Sound too rough and forest-clad for them, Cook took them on to Queen Charlotte Sound, which was entered on i8th May. In his Journal he says :

On the 22nd in the morning, the ewe and ram, I had with so much care and trouble brought to this place, were both found dead, occasioned, as was supposed, by eating some poisonous plant. Thus my hopes of stocking this country with a breed of sheep were blasted in a moment.

According to the Rev. R. Taylor, Marsden brought over a merino ram and four ewes from Sydney in the twenties. These animals, which were a present from the King, were the originals of the first flock of sheep in New Zealand. I cannot find when sheep were next brought into the Colony, but as soon as settlement began they were imported freely from New South Wales. In those early days fences were very rough, and little or no attempt was made to keep the sheep

54 MAMMALIA

within enclosures. They were therefore allowed to roam freely over the open country, and were only mustered at rare intervals for shearing, tailing the lambs, etc. It was inevitable, therefore, that numbers escaped the musterers, especially on high and inaccessible country, and that thus wild sheep became very common, especially in the mountain districts of the South Island.

Twenty or thirty years ago when the minds of naturalists were saturated with Darwinian views, it was somewhat confidently antici- pated that isolation would lead to the rapid development of new varieties and species, and that such changes might well be looked for in New Zealand. At the meeting of the Australasian Association in Christchurch in 1891, 1 read a paper " on some Aspects of Acclima- tisation in New Zealand " from which I take the following extract :

In the district of Strath-Taieri, in Otago, some years ago, certain sheep on one of the runs — probably the progeny of a single ram — were found to be evidently short-winded. Apparently the action of the heart was defective, for, when these sheep were driven, they would run with the rest of the flock for a short distance, and then lie down panting. The result of this peculiar affection was that, at nearly every mustering, these short- winded sheep used to be left behind, being unable to be driven with the rest. Sometimes they were brought on more slowly afterwards; but, if it happened to be shearing-time, they were simply caught and shorn where they lay. As a result of this peculiar condition, a form of artificial selection was set up, the vigorous, active sheep being constantly drafted away for sale, etc., while this defective strain increased with great rapidity through- out the district; for, whenever the mobs were mustered for the market, shearing, or drafting, these "cranky" sheep (as they came to be called) were left behind. This defective character appeared in every succeeding generation, and seemed to increase in force, reminding one of the Ancon sheep referred to by Darwin. At first, of course, the character was not recognized as hereditary; but, as the numbers of this "cranky" breed increased to a very serious extent and spread over the district, it came at last to be recognized as a local variety. When the runs on which these sheep were abundant were cut up and sold, or re-leased in smaller areas, the purchasers found it necessary, for the protection of their own interests, to exterminate the variety, of which hundreds were found straggling over the country. This was easily and effectually done in the following manner. As soon as a sheep was observed it was pursued ; but, after running for a couple of hundred yards at a great rate of speed, it would drop down panting behind a big stone or other shelter, and seemed incapable for a time of rising and renewing its flight. It was immediately destroyed ; and, in this manner a useless — but, to the naturalist, a very interesting — variety was eliminated.

Wild sheep are still abundant in some of the wilder parts of the country, and are especially numerous in the high limestone country of Marlborough. Mr Aston says:

UNGULATA 55

On the North-west side of Isolated Hill is a gently-sloping tussock land stretching down towards the Ure river, on which are hundreds of wild sheep in small flocks of about half-a-dozen in each. All, — rams, ewes, and particularly the lambs, are, as far as we could see, in excellent condition. Some were curiously marked and coloured. One had a brown body, black legs and face, and white forehead. The rams had large horns, and all were tamer than ordinary domestic sheep. Their food appears to consist of the Silver Tussock, Poa ccespitosa, which was well eaten down; a Poa like P. colensoi; the Spear Grass, Aciphylla Colensoi; and several other native plants and shrubs.

In another place he says: "these sheep destroy the Gaya trees" (the mountain ribbon-wood, Gaya Lyallii), " by eating the bark, which we watched one stripping off in large sheets."

Sheep have been liberated on the Auckland Islands at various times since 1890, and on the Antipodes between 1886 and 1900, but they either died off or were killed by castaways. They were also liberated on Campbell Island between 1888 and 1890. In 1896 the island was taken up as a sheep run (a piece of vandalism on the part of the man who did it, and the Government which granted it), and in 1903 there were about 4500 sheep on it. The changes produced in the vegetation have been described and discussed at length by Dr Cockayne. In 1907, according to Laing, there were some 8000 sheep on the island, and the transformation and destruction of the native flora was going on at a great rate.

They were introduced into Chatham Island in the early forties, but as late as 1855 there were only about 200 of them. When sheep stations were organised in 1866 there were about 2000 on the island, and by 1900 they had increased to about 60,000, and a number of them were wild. They have profoundly altered the native vegetation by eating 'out many species, such as Myosotidium nobile, Aciphylla Traversii, Veronica Dieffenbachii and allied species, all of which they eat greedily.

At the present time (1919) several hundred wild sheep are running on the island of Kapiti which is now a plant and animal sanctuary. Steps are being taken to destroy these animals. Nearly all of them carry long, filthy dags ; very many of them have the wool torn more or less completely from the back by the bushes. Not only do they prevent to a very large extent the growth of young trees, but they open up the forest to the sweep of the wind. They prepare it for invasion by grass, tauhinu (Pomaderris phyliccefolia), manuka (Leptospermum scoparium), and other hardy plants. Although the manuka is one of the least objectionable of these invaders, yet in dry situations, such as some of the spurs, where it harbours no moss or liverworts, ve'ry little humus is formed, and that little is quickly washed away by rain. On some spurs — for example, on one just south of Waterfall — where manuka has replaced the forest, much soil has been removed,

56 MAMMALIA

and in no great time the manuka itself will be unable to retain its footing. In such cases the manuka marks a phase in the passage to utter barrenness.

I quote this from the report on Kapiti Island recently made by Professor H. B. Kirk and Mr W. E. Bendall, as showing the far- reaching effects of introduced animal life on the physiography of the country.

In connection with the introduction of sheep into New Zealand, it is of interest to note the remarkable development of the carnivorous habit in the kea or mountain parrot (Nestor), a bird which originally fed, chiefly, if not exclusively, on a vegetable diet. In 1867 it was observed in regard to certain sheep in the Wanaka district of Otago that they were wounded or badly scarred on the loins. It was found that this was done by keas, which lighted on the backs of the sheep, and attacked them with their powerful beaks. Many shepherds in the district saw the birds attack the sheep, especially when the latter were in snow or were in poor condition. The keas lighted down on the wool, and bit into the loin generally above the kidneys. Numbers of sheep succumbed to the injuries received, the loss in the Lake Hawea region being estimated at 5 per cent, annually over the whole of the flocks. In the Amuri highlands in North Canterbury the annual loss of *j\ to 8 per cent, was estimated to have risen to 15 per cent, in 1906. All keas do not attack sheep. The habit was originally acquired in the Wanaka district, and spread from there; but it has now been recorded from the Takitimos in the south to Amuri in the north. The origin of the habit is not very clear, but it is probable that it was first learned by keas picking the fat off sheep-skins which were hung on stockyards or on the wire fences, that then they attacked dead sheep — which are common enough in the high country, especially, after heavy snowfalls — and that from these they learned to attack living sheep. Keas shot on mountain country have often beenfound to have a good deal of both flesh and wool in their stomachs, but it is quite possible that this has been taken from carcasses lying in the snow drifts, where they are often preserved for a long time.

Bharal ; Himalayan Bhurrel Sheep ; Blue Sheep (Ovis nayaur}

In 1909 the Tourist Department liberated three of these animals in the Mount Cook district. Mr J. R. Murrell, guide at the Hermitage, writing in October, 1915, says : " Three were liberated, one of which was in poor health. Another was caught disturbing ewes on a neighbouring station, and was perhaps destroyed. The third has not been seen since being liberated."

UNGULATA 57

* Goat (Capra esgagrus)

The introduction of goats dates from Captain Cook's second voyage. He says in his Journal:

On 2nd June, 1773, I sent on shore, on the East side of the Sound, (Queen Charlotte), two goats male and female. The former was something more than a year old, but the latter was much older. She had two fine kids some time before we arrived in Dusky Bay, which were killed by cold.

Forster in his Journal says they were left by Captain Furneaux in an unfrequented part of East Bay, " this place being fixed on in hopes that they would there remain unmolested by the natives, who indeed were the only enemies they had to fear."

On the third voyage, the 'Resolution' was in Queen Charlotte Sound from the i2th to 25th February, 1777, and Captain Cook says:

I gave Matahouah two goats, a male and a female with kid, (and to Tomatongeauooranuc two pigs, a boar and a sow). They made me a promise not to kill them; though I must own I put no great faith in this. The animals which Captain Furneaux sent on shore here, and which soon after fell into the hands of the natives, I was now told were all dead.

It is popularly believed that all the wild goats of New Zealand are descended from those introduced by Captain Cook, but while this may be partly true of those in the South Island, especially at its northern end, it can hardly explain those found in the North Island. It is more likely that they are descended from escaped animals; they are now abundant in many parts of New Zealand. Mr F. G. Gibbs tells me that goats were imported into Nelson some time in the forties. "In the fifties a large number were kept tethered on some hills in the Maitai Valley, still called the Goat Hills. Some of these goats escaped into the back country, and were the progenitors of the wild goats."

In the high country of Marlborough they are mainly of three colours, black— -which is perhaps the commonest — khaki and white. In a trip through the canon of the Ure River, Mr B. C. Aston says: "the fusillades of stones showered down on us by the goats which we had disturbed were a source of ever present danger."

Great numbers of them are to be met with in the rocky and precipitous country at Palliser Bay, near Wellington. Except when they move they are difficult to see, as their colours blend almost undistinguishably with that of their natural surroundings. They are abundant on Kapiti Island and unfortunately are also common in the Mt Egmont reserve, where they are doing much damage.

They also occur, though not commonly, on the sparsely scrub-

58 MAMMALIA

clad faces of the west coast, north and south of Hokianga, as well as on the outskirts of bush land. They are not therefore considered to be of any commercial value.

Writing of those in the Lake Wakatipu district, Mr L. Hotop of Queenstown says (April, 1916):

There is an immense number spread all over the Lakes district, — a

moderate estimate gives them as many as 30,000 They are principally

at Moonlight, Skippers, Sandhills, and at the lower end of the Lake, seriously interfering with the pasturage in these localities; one runholder has paid year after year for as many as a thousand during the season. At Moonlight, a digger, during the past nine months, has shot 550. My informant tells me he was offered 2s. ^d. a skin for as many as he could send.

Mr W. H. Gates of Skippers writes (April, 1916):

there are a lot of wild goats here, almost within rifle-range of my cabin .... One sheep-farmer gave a shilling per pair of ears, and a shilling for each pelt. The male is a rough-looking customer; some have horns 15 inches in length, and 2\ inches by if inches at the root; and they grow in a slightly spiral form .... I think there is a strain of many breeds running through them all. Some have long hair, but are not the Angora breed. Some are almost white, but the chief colours are black and white, or black and tan. I have noticed here (and also on the West Coast) that the female has her young in winter, when food is not plentiful. Why this is I never could understand.

Goats are still found wild on the Galloway Station, Central Otago, though not so abundant as in former years. They live in the high country, and do not come down to the settlements. Mr A. Gunn, who managed this large run for many year-s, tells me:

they are of great use to sheep farmers, as they keep down the "lawyers" (Rubus australis), and thus save the sheep from being entangled. In shooting them, if the wind is coming from them, you can smell them before you see them; and while they are feeding a billy-goat is always standing on guard. While they are of all colours, black and white is the commonest, though brownish- red, grey and even occasionally a white one are found. They live in the roughest places they can find.

They are also found in considerable numbers round the south- west corner of the South Island, but whether they have escaped from the settlements about Preservation Inlet, or have worked overland from Southland it is not possible to say with certainty. Probably the former is the explanation of their occurrence from Puysegur Point inland.

Mr W. R. Bullen of Kaikoura informs me (August, 1916) that they are numerous on his run, but while they eat very much the same food as the sheep do, they keep the scrub and bush open, so that the sheep can move through it.

UNGULATA 59

The attempts made from time to time to acclimatise goats on the out-lying Southern Islands are of interest. Captain Enderby landed some on Enderby Island in 1850, and Captain Norman landed them both on the Auckland and Enderby Islands in 1865, but none appears to have survived. Cockayne says : " Two or three were landed on Ewing Island in 1895, but none have been seen recently. On Ocean Island, a very small island in the Auckland Group, goats are numerous at the present time, but I have no details as to how they got there." Captain Bollons writing me in February, 1916, speaks also of the last-named island, and adds:

Goats have been sent down from time to time to the Auckland Islands since 1890, most of which have either died or been killed off for food by castaways. At the Snares they were liberated about 1889, but soon died off. At Campbell Island some were landed in 1888 and 1890, and several were alive when the main island was taken up for a sheep run in 1896. At the Antipodes several were liberated between 1886 and 1900, but were either used for food by the castaways or died off.

Special breeds of Goats. In 1867 the Canterbury Society intro- duced three Cashmere goats, but it is not stated what was done with them. In the same year they introduced a pair of Angora goats, and these commenced to breed at once. From a newspaper cutting dated 1876, I find that "a flock of 120 Angora Goats on the Port Hills (Lyttelton), chiefly descended from two pairs introduced into New Zealand by the Melbourne Acclimatisation Society, has recently been dispersed and sold." The Otago Society imported four in 1867, and liberated them, but it is not stated where. The Auckland Society in 1869 also imported a number, and sold them to a Mr Howick. In addition to these, Angora goats were frequently introduced by private individuals, and in some cases became wild. Mr Aston writes (1916): "I hear that the Angora is hybridizing with the common goat in some parts of Maryborough." In the report of the Agricultural Department for 1903 it is stated:

The original flock (of Angora Goats) imported from Victoria and South Australia has now assumed considerable proportions, partly through the natural increase and the purchase of nineteen grade nannies from Mr Taylor White, of Wimbledon, Hawke's Bay. . . .The mob has been running

at the Weraroa Experimental Station up till now The usual wire fence

will not keep them in, consequently wire netting must be resorted to. . . . A few of the ordinary goats, with a pure Angora billy, have been sent to the natives in the Urewera Country, Bay of Plenty. If not allowed to run mid they should in a few years become of some commercial value.

No native fence will keep a goat in. The Angora goat is now being bred in fairly large numbers especially in the Auckland province in

60 MAMMALIA

order to keep the blackberry pest in check. They are usually tethered close to the bushes, and shifted frequently as they eat them down. The total number of these animals registered in the Dominion in 1917 was only 6836.

*Thar; Himalayan Goat (Capra jemlaicd)

In 1904 six of these animals were received from the Duke of Bedford, and were liberated near the Hermitage, Mt Cook. In 1913 three more were liberated near the Franz Joseph Glacier. Mr J. R. Murrell, guide at the Hermitage, writing in October, 1915, says:

Other guides and I saw a few days ago a nice "mob" of 13 Thar on the Sealey Range ; these were in the pink of condition and doubtless will become plentiful. Previously a much larger number were seen, but doubt- less there are a number of mobs on this range.

By the end of 1920 these herds had increased very considerably.

* Chamois (Rupicapra rupicaprd)

In 1888 enquiries were set on foot by the late Sir Julius von Haast and the author with the object of obtaining chamois for New Zealand. Dr von Hochstetter of Vienna who was communicated with was hopeful of obtaining some partially-tame animals from the King of Bavaria's park near Munich, and arrangements were made with Hagenbeck of Hamburg for their transmission to the Colony. To meet the expenses of shipment a vote of £150 was placed on the estimates by the Government, and the passage of this vote through the House of Representatives led to a scene of historic interest, and one of the most amusing incidents in the history of the House. The vote was objected to by Mr Kerr, member for Motueka, a goldfield's representative more remarkable for his vigour than for his knowledge or the accuracy of his information. The following is an extract from the New Zealand Times of 28th June, 1889 :

MR KERR ON THE CHAMOIS

The vote of £150 appearing on the estimates for the importation of Chamois afforded Mr Kerr an opportunity last night of protesting vigorously against the introduction of more pests into the Colony. Amidst consider- able merriment the honourable member said he was reliably informed that this animal was a cross between a pig and a sheep, and that it bred scab ; and, in case it might be a goat he reminded the Government that there were already plenty of these animals running wild. The climax was reached when Mr Kerr unsuspectingly quoted from the book handed to him by Mr Turnbull (and which proved to be Mark Twain's Tramp Abroad) — a remarkable history of the habits of "small deer," under which name the celebrated American humourist concealed the identity of the flea. — "Was it reasonable," Mr Kerr asked, "to spend money on the importation of

UNGULATA 61

animals no bigger than a mustard seed ? " The House, however, was quite resolved, and deliberately passed the vote, in spite of the earnest protests of the member for Motueka1.

I cannot recall now, nor find any record, as to why the introduc- tion of chamois was not carried out in 1889, but I think the cause was that the animals could not be procured. No further attempt was made till recently. In 1907, the Government received eight chamois, a present from the Emperor of Austria, and these were liberated on Mt Cook. In 1913, two more, from the same source, were received and were set free in the same locality. Unfortunately one of the latter, a buck, attacked a party of tourists near the Mueller Hut, and was killed by the guide. It is most unusual for chamois to attack persons, but this particular animal is believed to have been in captivity for some years prior to importation. By latest reports (August, 1920) the flock is increasing fast and the animals are in very fine condition, herds of 30, 40 and 70 being noticed at one time. There is, therefore, no doubt that this species will be shortly strongly established in the Southern Alps.

Order CARNIVORA Family FELID^E * Cat (Felts catus)

Wild cats have been found in New Zealand from the early days of settlement, though for long they never strayed very far from the abodes of men. But after rabbits began to increase in many parts at such a rate as to reduce the sheep-carrying capacity of the country, sheep farmers began to purchase cats in the towns. These were taken

1 The passage which Mr Kerr quoted, in which he spoke of the animals he objected to as "shammies," is as follows:

"Within a day or two I made another discovery. This was that the lauded chamois is not a wild goat; that it is not a horned animal; that it is not shy; that it does not avoid human society ; and that there is no peril in hunting it. The chamois is a black or brown creature no bigger than a mustard seed ; you do not have to go after it, it comes after you ; it arrives in vast herds and skips and scampers all over your body inside your clothes ; thus it is not shy ; but extremely sociable ; it is not afraid of man, on the contrary, it will attack him; its bite is not dangerous, but neither is it pleasant ; its activity has not been overstated, — if you try to put your finger on it, it will skip a thousand times its own length at one jump, and no eye is sharp enough to see where it lights. A great deal of romantic nonsense has been written about the Swiss chamois and the perils of hunting it, whereas the truth is that even women and children hunt it, and fearlessly; indeed, everybody hunts it ; the hunting is going on all the time, day and night, in bed and out of it. It is poetic foolishness to hunt it with a gun ; very few people do that ; there is not one man in a million can hit it with a gun. It is much easier to catch it than it is to shoot it, etc., etc., etc."

The same gentleman is credited with another amusing "acclimatisation" blunder. When the Nelson Borough Council proposed to import half a dozen Venetian Gondolas to be placed on the lake in the Public Gardens, he protested against such extravagance — " Why not import a pair, and then let Nature take its course ? "

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out to the back country, turned out and fed for a time, till they were established. No doubt some died, but most became more or less wild and learned to subsist on the smaller animals of the neighbour- hood. They certainly destroyed many young rabbits. They cleared off the rats which were formerly so common, they also largely exterminated native lizards, and did much to destroy many native and introduced birds. Mr Chas. J. Peters, of Mount Somers, considers that wild cats are far more effective in keeping down rabbits than stoats and weasels, and estimates that a cat will kill more rabbits in a month than one of the others will in six months. Dieffenbach, writing of the Piako district (Auckland) in 1839, says: "the cats which, on becoming wild, have assumed the streaky grey colour of the original animal while in a state of nature, form a great obstacle to the propagation of any new kinds of birds, and also tend to the destruction of many indigenous species." This statement about the colour of wild cats has been made much of. It is only true to a limited extent, and I have always felt that such statements coming from a traveller who had only limited means of observing the facts, and who apparently founded his conclusions on a few isolated observations of the settlers, are not always safe to generalise from. In this instance they led Darwin (in The Variation of Plants and Animals under Domestication) to quote him, and to use the statement as a proof of the strong tendency to reversion shown by the cat when it escaped from domestication. At the time Dieffenbach wrote, settlement was quite in its infancy, and cats had not long been introduced. It is probable, therefore, that his statement, whether the result of his own or other people's observations, referred to cats which were themselves the progeny of grey animals. It certainly is the case that in Central Otago, where cats were freely liberated to cope with the rabbit pest, animals of many colours are now found wild1.

Mr Robert Scott, M.P. for Otago Central, who had exceptional opportunities for observing the facts, has recently given me most interesting information regarding this question. He says : the wild cat was no doubt the descendant of the shepherds' and miners' tame cat. The predominating colour was grey-striped, or tiger-striped — as some people called them, — occasionally yellow, and rarely black or black and white. The time I write of was the seventies, say from 1870 on to the time when poisoning the rabbits with phosphorized grain came in. The cats, though not numerous, were fairly common especially in districts where cover, such as fern and scrub, was plentiful. They grew to an

1 In a paper entitled "Red Cats and Disease" (Trans. N.Z. Inst. xxxi, p. 680), Mr Richard Henry refers to the occurrence of distemper among wild cats at Mana- pouri Station in 1881, and states that red cats — which were always males — seemed to survive, when those of other colours succumbed to the disease. He also states that cats which live wholly on rabbits are very liable to disease.

CARNIVORA 63

immense size and were game to the last if attacked ; in fact no dog would tackle one single-handed. They were always in the pink of condition, which may be accounted for by the abundance of feed available in the shape of wekas, ducks and rats, with perhaps a dead sheep or bullock occasionally. When the rabbit poisoning came in that class or variety of cat disappeared along with the wild pig and the weka. The reason for the extermination of the cat is because it prefers the entrails to the flesh. Since that time up to the present cats have been turned out in considerable numbers, but the rabbit-trapping has effectually prevented their increase, and the survivors still retain their original colours, that is black, black and white, grey, grey and white, etc., but they are much smaller than the wild cat of forty years ago. My opinion is that had the original cat survived till to-day the colour would have invariably been grey, or rather grey-striped.

Mr H. C. Weir of Ida Valley Station, Otago, states that on high country where rabbit-traps are seldom if ever used, they grow to a very considerable size, and are most commonly of a grey colour, but yellow, grey and white, and black are also to be met with. He adds: " I cannot say I ever saw any approaching the tiger- like stripe of the home country Wild Cat, and I have seen a good few of them in the wilds of Sutherlandshire, Scotland."

Some people consider that wild cats are responsible for much of the failure which has followed the constantly-renewed attempts to naturalise game birds. At the annual meeting of the Wellington Society in 1898, a member said: "cats are more destructive to game than all the hawks, weasels and stoats in the colony. Most of the bush coverts are full of these cats, a fact which he himself proved near Fielding where, with the assistance of traps baited with smoked fish, he caught many. " I think they may have contributed to some extent to this failure, but only in a few parts of the country, and then chiefly in the neighbourhood of settlements. I do not think wild cats have had much to do with the extermination of game.

Mr B. C. Aston, in a paper on the Kaikoura Mountains, speaks of the half-wild cats which are found about deserted fencers' and musterers' camps, as retaining

all their love for man's comradeship if encouraged, but they invariably refuse to eat anything that they have not killed themselves. They probably exist on rabbits, birds and mice. As a result of their hunting habits their chest and foreleg muscles are largely developed, and they have a different look to the ordinary domestic cat, being leaner, and quicker in action.

When the Russian Commander Bellingshausen visited the Mac- quaries in 1820 he found numbers of wild cats, which hid among the foliage. There were at the time, however, two parties of traders (seal hunters ?) on the island, one of 13 and the other of 27 men, and these probably accounted for the cats.

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Captain Musgrave, who was a castaway from the schooner 'Grafton' when she was wrecked on the Auckland Islands in 1864, found a cat in a trap, more than a year after the date of the wreck. " She soon cleared the hut of mice, which were dreadfully common.'*

In 1868, H. H. Travers in his account of a visit to the Chatham Islands states that wild cats were very abundant, and that they had destroyed a great number of the indigenous birds. Mr F. A. D. Cox, writing to Mr Jas. Drummond in 1911, from the Chatham Islands, reports that on Mangare, a small island of the group, there is a colony of tortoise-shell cats ; the progeny of some liberated on the island in order to destroy the rabbits which were present in large numbers. He adds: "I do not know whether they have succeeded in killing out the rabbits, but they certainly have exterminated the small native birds." Presumably the Chatham Island Fern-bird (Sphenaeacus rufes- cens), which was only found on Mangare, has now ceased to exist. Mr J. Grant of Wanganui informs me that cats frequently catch eels; he has four or five direct observations of the fact (1918). Cats are also responsible for the destruction of birds and tuataras on Stephen's Island in Cook Strait, where they have exterminated the little wren Trover sia Lyalli, peculiar to this island.

* Dog (Cants familiaris)

When Captain Cook arrived in New Zealand in 1769, he found that the dog and a species of rat were the only mammals in these islands. The dog had been brought with them by the Maoris, and was similar to the form which was commpn in Polynesia. Most of the histories of the migrations of the Maori refer to the fact of their bringing dogs with them, so that they had probably been in the country for some centuries before the advent of Europeans.

Crozet saw them in 1772 and described them as follows:

The dogs are a sort of domesticated fox, quite black or white, very low on the legs, straight ears, thick tail, long body, full jaws, but more pointed than that of the fox, and uttering the same cry ; they do not bark like our dogs. These animals are only fed on fish, and it appears that the savages only raise them for food. Some were taken on board our vessels; but it was impossible to domesticate them like our dogs; they were always treacherous, and bit us frequently. They would have been dangerous to keep where poultry was raised or had to be protected ; they would destroy them just like true foxes.

Forster, in his account of the second voyage, 1773, writing of Queen Charlotte Sound natives, says:

"A good many dogs were observed in their canoes, which they seemed very fond of, and kept tied with a string round their middle ; they were of a rough, long-haired sort, with pricked ears, and much resembled the

CARNIVORA 65

Common Shepherds' Cur, or Count Buffon's chien de berger. They were of different colours, some quite black, and others perfectly white. The food which these dogs receive is fish, or the same as their masters live on, who afterwards eat their flesh and employ the fur in various ornaments and dresses." Later on in the same journal he says: "The officers had ordered their black dog to be killed, and sent to the captain one half of it; this day (Qth June) therefore we dined for the first time on a leg of it roasted, which tasted so exactly like mutton that it was absolutely undistinguish-

able In New Zealand, and in the tropical isles of the South Sea, the

dogs are the most stupid, dull animals imaginable, and do not seem to have the least advantage in point of sagacity over our sheep. In the former country they are fed upon fish, in the latter on vegetables."

Bellingshausen, who visited New Zealand in 1820, says: "We saw no quadrupeds except dogs of a small species. Captain Lazarew bought a couple. They are rather small, have a woolly tail, erect ears, a large mouth and short legs."

Dieffenbach, writing nearly seventy years after Cook's visit, re- marks that :

the native dog was formerly considered a dainty, and great numbers of them were eaten; but the breed having undergone an almost complete mixture with the European, their use as an article of food has been dis- continued, as the European dogs are said by the natives to be perfectly unpalatable. The New Zealand dog is different from the Australian dingo; the latter resembles in size and shape the wolf while the former rather resembles the jackal; its colour is reddish-brown, its ears long and straight.

The Rev. R. Taylor says: "The New Zealand dog was small and long-haired, of a dirty white or yellow colour, with a bushy tail; this the natives state they brought with them when they first came to these islands." Then he adds : " it is not improbable, however, that they found another kind already in the country, brought by the older Melanesian race, with long white hair and black tail; it is said to have been very quiet and docile."

S. Percy Smith saw several Maori dogs in a native village at Warea, near Cape Egmont, in 1852. They were long-bodied, fox- eared, sharp-nosed, long-haired, bushy-tailed, yellowish-brown, and dark — almost to black — in colour. They stood about 18 inches high. He branded them as curs. They were evidently lazy, stupid brutes, which never became wild.

Mr Elsdon Best writes to Mr Drummond (Lyttelton Times, nth January, 1913):

Some old Maoris of the East Coast district assert that before Captain Cook's visit there were two distinct breeds of dogs in New Zealand. One was a large dog, with long hair, and lop ears; the other a small dog with erect ears. The first was brought, they say, from Raiatea. This variety was

66 MAMMALIA

bred solely for food and clothing; it was useless for hunting. The long hair covered the body as low as its knees, and there was a natural parting along the top of the back. The small dog was also introduced from Polynesia, and was useful for hunting the kiwi, weka and parera (grey duck).

The so-called "Maori" dogs seen in the fifties and sixties he be- lieves were crosses. As to the word "pero-pero,"he says that whether it was Spanish in origin, or not, it is not improbable that Spanish vessels reached these shores before Cook's visit.

For centuries the Spaniards concealed the results of their voyages very carefully. In the short accounts of their early voyages, the positions of the islands discovered by them were vague and unsatisfactory. The voyage made by Juan Fernandez westward from Chili, and then southward to a land inhabited by white people who made "good woven cloth," may point to a visit to New Zealand's shores. The natives of the more northern islands, unlike the Maoris, did not wear woven material, but used bark cloth, and "white people" might refer to the Maoris, as the Spanish voyagers called all true Polynesians white.

H. J. Fletcher in a late issue of the Journal of the Polynesian Society states that the Maori dog was known at the Matapihi Station, Taupo, as late as 1896. The shepherds employed on the station shot a number of dogs, long-haired, bushy-tailed, and of a dirty white colour.

Elsdon Best (April, 1913) gives some statements about the Maori dog as follows:

(1) Captain Mair says that in his youth he saw these dogs trained to hunt by themselves through the kumara plantations for the large caterpillars of the Sphinx convolvuli. They were trained to put their noses under the trailing shoots of the vines and to turn the shoots over, in order to expose any caterpillars that might be present. If they succeeded in finding any they devoured them. If the dogs were not watched they ate pieces out of the pumpkins.

(2) Savage, in Some Account of New Zealand, published in 1807, says:

as far as I can learn, the natives have no larger animal than the dog, which is a native here, usually black and white, with sharp, pricked-up ears, the hair rather long, and in figure resembling the animal we call a foxhound.

(3) Shortland (in 1856) says:

The natives wore cloaks made from the skins of dogs before Captain Cook's time, and their manner of fabricating such cloaks is particularly ingenious. Moreover, the native breed of dogs still exists in New Zealand, though, perhaps, seldom in its original purity, and is preserved in some places for the sake of its skin. In appearance it is very unlike the European breeds. Its body is long, legs short, head sharp, tail long, straight and bushy. The hair is thick, straight, and tolerably long, varying in colour from white to brown, but it is not spotted.

CARNIVORA 67

In a paper written by Dr Hector in 1876 on the "Remains of a Dog found near White Cliffs, Taranaki," he says: "The remains of a dog were found in a hollow tree which was imbedded in a cliff (at a depth of 19 ft.) near the Urenui River." Captain Rowan, the discoverer, and Dr Hector both seem to think that the dog must have crept into the tree, at a comparatively recent date, for though the lignite which occurred in one of the layers above the remains is of great antiquity, the state of preservation of the bones, as compared with the thorough alteration that the vegetable matter of the lignite has undergone, inclines me to believe that the dog remains are of modern origin. But even in that case, the circumstances under which they have been found, and the decayed state of the dentine layer of the teeth tend to refer them to a period further back than any pre- viously obtained.

Dr Hector states (1876) that a bitch and full grown pup were known for several years in the densely wooded country between Waikawa and the Mataura plains, and did great damage among the flocks of sheep, but exhibited such cunning and daring that it was not till after hunting them for two years that they were shot by Mr Anderson, who presented them to the Colonial Museum. Of the smaller specimen both skin and skeleton were taken to the British Museum by Sir Geo. Grey, and the skin of the mother was pre- served here, and has been recognised by many old Maoris as a genuine Kurt or ancient Maori dog.

In general appearance it resembles a poodle, but it presents characters unlike any other of the many breeds of dogs which we are familiar with. It is a large bodied dog with slender limbs, large ears, and a straight half-bushed tail, wide head, and small pointed nose. Its colour is white, with a black spot on the loins, and a brown spot on the crown of the head, and a few faint spots on the ears. Its nose is black, and its claws are white. The back is covered with hair. The total length is 3 ft., and the height of the shoulder 17 inches.

Taylor White writing in 1889, says:

I consider these dogs entirely distinct from the European dog. For the wild dogs met with on the Waimakariri River in the Alpine ranges of Canterbury during the year 1856, were in colour and markings identical with those found in the Alpine region of the Lake Wakatipu, Otago, in 1860, a distance of several hundred miles apart. There seems little room to doubt that they were an original Maori dog. The fact of their wanting the two tan spots over the eyes mostly seen in European dogs of approxi- mate colour, is a very strong evidence also in favour of this opinion.

The Maori dog has totally disappeared. Mr S. Percy Smith tells me that the last one he heard of was about 1896.

5—2

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When settlement began European dogs must have crossed freely with the native animal, and many both of the introduced and crossed dogs became truly wild, especially as there were sheep and goats to worry and pigs to chase and kill.

Dr Lyall, who was surgeon on H.M.S. 'Acheron* during the survey of the coast of New Zealand in 1844, in a paper read in 1852 before the Zoological Society of London says of the Kakapo, that :

at a very recent period it was common all over the west coast of the Middle Island ; but there is now a race of wild dogs said to have overrun all the northern part of this shore, and to have almost extirpated the Kakapo wherever they have reached.

The same thing was practically said by Brunner (1846-1848), who was nearly starved in S.W. Nelson owing to the destruction of the ground birds.

The early settlers could not distinguish between Maori dogs and these half-wild curs. Thus R. Gillies, who arrived in Otago at the beginning of the settlement in 1848, writing in later years says:

For some years after the settlers arrived here, the wild dog was the

terror of the flock-master and the object of his inveterate hostility They

ran from any tame dogs, and tame dogs, as a rule, would follow and attack them with all their master's antipathy .... The bulk of the wild dogs were not domestic animals gone wild, but the true old Maori wild dog.

W. D. Murison, formerly editor of the Otago Daily Times, writing at the same period (1877), tells how in 1858, he and his brother took up country in the Maniototo Plains, which they reached by the Shag Valley. The wild dogs were very troublesome. The first was caught by a kangaroo dog (apparently imported from Australia for the pur- pose of hunting them).

This particular wild dog was yellow in colour, and so was the second tilled, but the bulk of those ultimately destroyed by us were black and white, showing a marked mixture of the collie. The yellow dogs looked like a distinct breed. They were low set, with short pricked ears, broad forehead, sharp snout, and bushy tail. Indeed those acquainted with the dingo professed to see little difference between that animal and the New Zealand yellow wild dog. It may be remarked, however, that most of the other dogs we killed, although variously coloured, possessed nearly

all the other characteristics of the yellow dog The wild dogs were

generally to be met with in twos and threes; they fed chiefly on quail, ground larks, young ducks, and occasionally on pigs. On one occasion, when riding through the Ida-burn valley, we came across four wild dogs baiting a sow and her litter of young ones in a dry tussock lagoon. To our annoyance, our own dogs joined in the attack upon the sow, and the wild

dogs got away without our getting one of them In all, we destroyed

52 dogs between September, 1859, an<^ December, 1860.

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Tancred writing of Canterbury in 1856 says: "A few dogs have escaped and become wild in unfrequented parts, where they have become dangerous to the flocks."

The following paragraph appeared in the Auckland Herald on i8th November, 1866:

It is not generally known that about Otamatea and the Wairoa the bush is infested with packs of wild dogs, as ferocious, but more daring, than wolves. These dogs hunt in packs of from three to six or eight. They are strong, gaunt large animals, and dangerous when met by a man alone. Not long since a Maori, when travelling from one settlement to another through the forest, was attacked by three of these animals at dusk, and only saved himself by climbing into a tree, where he was kept prisoner until late the next day. The extensive district over which these packs roam was once well stocked with wild pigs, but most of these have fallen victims to the dogs, and since this supply of food has failed the dogs have ventured after dark to the neighbourhood of native settlements and the homesteads of European settlers, in quest of prey.

G. M. Massing, writing from Feldwick, Otago (March, 1913), states that wild dogs infested the country about Lake Wanaka in 1860. They were exceptionally plentiful on the western ranges and in the country near the Matukituki River. They became so troublesome that the settlers found it necessary to keep packs of kangaroo dogs to hunt and destroy them. Mr Massing describes them as of no particular breed, but just coarse inbred mongrels, shy, cautious and cowardly. He adds:

In 1865, when exploring the Clark and Landsborough Rivers, tribu- taries of the Haast, I observed numerous tracks of wild dogs, but saw only one of the animals which came out of the bush across the river one evening. It was a large, rough-looking animal like a wolf, and when it caught sight of us it set up a most dismal howl, and plunged into the forest again.

Mr Andrew Wilson, a veteran surveyor, writing (February, 1913) from Hangatiki, about 120 miles south of Auckland, says that the wild dogs which lived in the North Island forests a few years ago had a strain of the original Maori dog in them. He describes two he saw as of a reddish-fawn colour, about the size of an ordinary cattle-dog. As far as his experience went, the wild dogs never barked, but only howled.

Mr J. Hall (May, 1913) says that on the Kaingaroa Plains he found wild dogs, red in colour, with pointed ears, and, when full grown, as large as a small collie. They were usually five or six in a pack. When a person approached they retired to a safe distance, and gave a kind of howl. He never heard them bark, nor did he hear that they ever attacked anyone. On one occasion, however, when the late Mr R.

70 MAMMALIA

Mayer, of Otiamuri, was driving along the edge of the plains with his wife, a mob of five or six wild dogs rushed them and jumped at the horses' heads. On another occasion, a young Maori came from a neighbouring pa to see him. In a short time he returned with a terrified look on his face, and stated that a pack of wild dogs were attacking a large calf. Mr Hall, taking his gun, went to the scene, and was just in time to drive the dogs off and save the calf. When travelling over the plains with domestic dogs, Mr Hall noticed that the latter can scent the wild dogs miles off. As soon as they receive the scent, they stand and watch, and their hair becomes bristly almost at once.

My son, G. Stuart Thomson, informs me that wild dogs were at one time so common in Marlborough, and did so much damage on the sheep runs, that packs of hunting dogs were kept and bred for the special purpose of running them down. ,£5 per head used to be paid for wild dogs.

Mr Elsdon Best wrote that in 1877, the Rev. W. Colenso said in regard to Maori dog-skin garments: "Many a dog-skin mat has he made within the past fifty years of the skins of dogs of the small mongrel breed, before European clothing became common among the Natives."

As settlement proceeded and the country became opened up, wild dogs were gradually exterminated. The only ones which are now met with are curs which have managed to escape from their owners and have taken to rabbit- or to sheep-killing.

Bellingshausen reported wild dogs on the Macquaries in 1820, but it is improbable that they long survived the sealers, who probably originally brought them. As soon as the killing of seals and sea- birds stopped, the dogs probably died out. Captain Musgrave, who was wrecked on the Auckland Island in 1864, discovered wild dogs — like sheep dogs — on the island.

Family MUSTELID^E

*Ferret ; Polecat (Putorius foetidus) . * Stoat ; Ermine (Putorius erminea) . *Weasel (Putorius vulgaris)

Nothing in connection with the naturalisation of wild animals into New Zealand has caused so much heart-burning and controversy as the introduction of these bloodthirsty creatures.

The Canterbury Society introduced five ferrets in 1867, and an additional one in 1868. They were apparently not liberated, though the progeny was probably sold to private individuals. In 1873 the

CARNIVORA 71

Society had six in Christchurch Gardens. Probably private individuals (dealers) introduced them at all the chief centres, but there is no record.

As rabbits began to increase to an alarming extent, various sugges- tions were made as to importing what was called "the natural enemy." One authority actually proposed to introduce Arctic foxes, because their fur would be so valuable. When it was pointed out to him that they would probably prefer lamb to rabbit, he replied that as they did not know anything about lambs in their native haunts it was improbable that they would take to eating them in New Zealand. Fortunately his proposal was not given effect to. Meanwhile sheep farmers brought pressure to bear on the Government, and as a result steps were taken to obtain ferrets. Numbers of these were introduced in 1882, and in the following year, Mr Bailey, Chief Rabbit Inspector, recommended the introduction of stoats and weasels. To show the scale on which these recommendations were carried out, I summarise from Mr Bailey's reports for four years as follows :

(a) In July, 1883, it is stated that since March, 1882 (15 months), the Agent-General had made 32 shipments of ferrets from London, numbering altogether 1217 animals. Of these only 178 were landed, at a cost of £953. Of 241 purchased in Melbourne, 198 were landed at a cost of £224. Thus the total number landed was 376, and the cost £1177, or £3. 2.s. jd. per head. The natural increase was 122, but 157 died of distemper. At this period it would seem as if the Government kept a perfect menagerie of these animals. In the same year a substantial bonus was offered to any one who would introduce a certain number of stoats and weasels in a healthy condition.

(6) In 1884 he reports: "nearly 4000 ferrets were turned out; 3041 in Marlborough alone, and about 400 on crown lands in Otago." The rest appear to have been sold to private individuals. He also states that "an agent has been sent home to procure stoats and weasels." Mr Rich of Palmerston imported some of these latter in a sailing vessel, but how many I cannot learn.

(c) In 1885 two lots of stoats and weasels were received from London, viz. 183 weasels (out of 202 shipped), and 55 stoats (out of 60). Of these, 67 weasels were released on a peninsula on Lake Wanaka of 8000 acres, on which they reduced the rabbits, but by no means exterminated them ; 28 weasels and 6 stoats were liberated at Lake Wakatipu; 15 weasels near the Waiau River, Southland; and 8 stoats at Ashburton. The rest were sold at Wellington, Christchurch, and Dunedin.

(d) In 1886 the Government introduced two lots, viz. 82 stoats and 126 weasels, which were distributed in about equal lots to the Wilkin River, the Makarora, at the head of Lake Ohau, and on the

72 MAMMALIA

Waitaki; and 32 stoats and 116 weasels distributed between Marl- borough and West Wairarapa. A private shipment of 55 stoats and 167 weasels was also received for Riddiford's station in West Wairarapa. The localities selected for these animals were those in which rabbits were most abundant. Mr Bailey also reported that "ferrets were turned out by thousands," but the success was only partial.

In this same year a meeting was held at Masterton to consider the administration of the Rabbit Act, and the best means of dealing with the pest. One of the resolutions carried was :

that the introduction of ferrets, stoats and weasels in large numbers is, in the opinion of this meeting, the only means by which the rabbit pest can be successfully put an end to, and that every owner of land infested with rabbits should either turn out ferrets in proportion to his acreage, or contri- bute to a fund for the breeding and purchase of ferrets, stoats and weasels to be turned out in the district. That the land-owners present form them- selves into an association for the purpose of providing the natural enemies.

An Association for the purpose was accordingly formed with this object in view, large sums of money were subscribed and hundreds of stoats and weasels were introduced into the district. Several of the acclimatisation societies took strong exception to the action of the Government and of the sheep owners directly concerned, but as the societies were themselves directly responsible for the rabbits, their protests were ineffective.

However much the introduction of the Mustelidae is to be deplored, the mischief has been done. Stoats and weasels are common in nearly every part of New Zealand and in some parts are enormously abundant. Ferrets (or the wild form, the polecats) are also met with. The latter do not thrive to any extent in the South Island; it may be that the winters are too severe for them. Probably most of the ferrets originally turned out were white or yellowish ; but some shot in the neighbour- hood of Dunedin seem to have reverted nearly to the original colour of the polecat.

These animals have not exterminated the rabbit, they do not even seem able in most parts to keep them in check. There is, however, great difference of opinion on the subject. Mr Chas. J. Peters, of Mount Somers, writes about these animals (August, 1916):

Since the stoats and weasels become fairly numerous the rabbits have increased a hundred per cent, and more. I have found weasels' nests both in heaps of fencing material, and also in rabbit burrows. These nests have always been made out of skvlarks' feathers. I have also found parts of young hares at weasels' camps, but never a sign of a rabbit.

Against this we can place the evidence of an old settler like Mr H. B. Flett of Table Hill, Otago, who states most definitely that

CARNIVORA 73

he used formerly to keep as many as 16 dogs on his place, and also employed ferrets, phosphorised oats and pollard, and in spite of most strenuous efforts he was only able to hold the rabbits in check. Since the introduction of stoats and weasels the rabbits have become fewer and fewer in number, and now, on his property of 7000 acres, the pest has practically disappeared, except in one corner where trapping is carried on. Where trappers are allowed to work, rabbits increase, for numbers of stoats and weasels are thus destroyed. Mr Flett's experience and opinions are those of many large land- holders throughout New Zealand.

My son, G. Stuart Thomson, has given me this note on the destructive action of the stoat. He says :

At Lee Stream, in the Taieri district I saw a rabbit paralysed with fright and uttering squeals of terror, and on looking round for the cause observed a stoat fully ten feet away walking deliberately towards the victim. The rabbit was killed by one bite on the neck. A few weeks ago a lady informed me that she had seen a somewhat similar occurrence at Brighton, but in this case the rabbit struggled to the lady for protection, and fell trembling at her feet, while the stoat disappeared.

In regard to any natural enemy it is, of course, absolutely certain that it cannot exterminate, but can only keep in check, the animal it is intended to cope with. If it does more, then its own means of livelihood are imperilled, or it has to find other victims1. Thus one direct benefit which stoats and weasels confer is the wholesale de- struction of rats and mice which they cause. Indirectly this may explain why certain birds, such as wekas among native species, and Calif ornian quail among introduced forms, have increased of late years in districts where both stoats and weasels abound. It may be that rats are more destructive to eggs and to young birds than even stoats and weasels. The latter certainly will not touch birds if they can get rats. Mr Flett, whom I have referred to above, tells me that 20 years ago rats were a perfect curse about the homesteads, destroying harness, sheep-skins, grain and food, but that since the weasels appeared the rats have absolutely gone. He states he has not seen one about his place for i 6 years.

The evidence regarding the destruction of the native avifauna by stoats and weasels is very inconclusive. Imported to destroy rabbits, they have penetrated into regions where rabbits are unknown, and where their food must have consisted exclusively of birds and bush rats (Mus rattus). Yet even in such districts there is evidence that native birds still survive in abundance, and there are also cases where birds like wekas, etc. have re-established themselves.

1 In Taranaki, in March 1917, a litter of nine sucking-pigs was found destroyed one night, apparently either by stoats or weasels.

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Mr Richard Norman, Albertown, writes in the Otago Witness of 2nd October, 1890:

I think that Mr E. H. Wilmot's experience in the Hollyford Valley, as recorded in the Witness a year or two ago, conclusively proves that the imported vermin kill the native wingless birds. He encountered there a ferret warren, and the weka, kiwi, and kakapo were almost exterminated. In the Makarora Valley these used to be plentiful, but since the advent of the stoats and weasels they are very rare, and rabbiting tallies have not depreciated.

Mr Geo. Mueller, Chief Surveyor of Westland, in his report on the "Reconnaissance Survey of the Head- waters of the Okuru, Actor and Burke Rivers" (Rept. N.Z. Survey Dept., for 1889-90, p. 50), says:

Several weasels and ferrets were caught and killed at the Okuru and

Waiatoto settlements, within about a mile from the sea-coast No rabbits

were met with until near the Actor, 19 miles from the coast; and they were only seen in numbers at the very head- waters of the Okuru .... Meanwhile the Kakapos,Kiwis, and Blue Ducks have nearly disappeared from the district.

Mr Richard Henry, writing from Lake Te Anau in September, 1890, says:

I have known the ferrets to take seven young paradise ducks out of a clutch of ten in 1888, and last year the same pair of ducks only reared two young ones, but away from the lake I have seen larger families. I found two black teal ducks killed by a ferret, though it is seldom any of their work is seen, for they always drag their prey under cover. The black teal are getting scarce.

Mr Henry adds :

I think very few ferrets at liberty survive the winter for want of food.

Sir Thos. Mackenzie has recorded a case in which a weasel killed a black swan ; and another which he saw in the Catlins district where a weasel brought down two tuis (Prosthemadera) from a tree.

The reverse of this tale is interesting. Mr H. Drummond has accumulated some evidence as to the killing of weasels by wekas (Ocydromus sp.). In 1909 Mr Murrell, junr., and Mr Harry Birley described how the wekas had been seen attacking and killing weasels. Mr Murrell witnessed a most interesting fight between them on a path. The weka circled round the weasel, watching a chance to spring in and strike it, which it did, always on the head, finally stretching its opponent out. They both note that native birds were beginning to increase again. In 1916 Mr A. T. G. Symons of Christchurch recorded the fact that wekas were killing weasels.

In regard to the occurrence and distribution of these species at the present time in New Zealand, I have no record of the introduction of the true polecat (Putorius foatidus) into the country ; but some eight

CARNIVORA 75

or nine years ago Mr Thomas Anderton, curator of the Portobello Marine Fish Hatchery, shot two animals, which were too large for stoats, being about eighteen inches long. They were not ferrets, for they were brown coloured. Unfortunately he did not realise the importance at the time of preserving the skin, their smell — for one thing — being so offensive, and so their specific character was not determined. It may be, of course, that they were stoats of unusually large size.

Ferrets are fairly common throughout the country. I was formerly of opinion that this species, which does not in Northern Europe survive the winter unless carefully housed, could not stand the winter in Otago, or indeed in any of the inland parts of New Zealand where the winter is severe. I am informed, however, by trappers of ex- perience, that they survive the Otago winter quite easily. Apparently wet cold is their enemy; and where burrows are warm, they can stand the dry cold quite easily.

Stoats are common from end to end of both islands. Mr Yar- borough of Kohu Kohu states that stoats and weasels do not seem to be so numerous now (1916) as they were some few years ago. At that time a great number of these intrepid little animals appeared on the eastern side of Hokianga estuary, and were occasionally observed swimming across the river, which is about a mile wide. For the last year or more they have neither been seen nor heard of.

In the parts of New Zealand where the winter cold is severe, stoats retain their habit of changing their coat in the late autumn. According to Seebohm (Siberia in Asia, p. 41), the ermine in Scotland regularly assumes its winter dress in cold winters, and in England as far south as the Derbyshire moors. In New Zealand I have records of white stoats in winter from Burke 's Pass, the Mackenzie Country, from the Taieri district, and from Lake Wakatipu, and these not as single instances, but as a fairly common occurrence. Thus Drummond (June, 1913) records the occurrence of a stoat from West Oxford. It was 17 inches long, and pure white in colour, except for the tip of the tail, which is jet black. The stuffed specimen is in the Canterbury

Museum1.

Family SCIURIDJE.

Chipmunk; Californian Grey Squirrel (Tamias striatus)

Brown Californian Squirrel (sp. ?)

About 1906, Mr P. R. Sargood, of Dunedin, liberated two of the former (all that remained out of 12 shipped from San Francisco)

1 The late Dr Giinther of the British Museum was not usually credited with a great sense of humour, but when discussing with Dr Chilton of Christchurch the introduction of stoats and weasels into New Zealand, he remarked: "Ach! why did they not send out males only?"

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and two of the latter species. They were seen about the Dunedin Town Belt and neighbourhood for two or three years but were not known to increase1.

Family MURIDJE.

Maori Rat ; Kiore (Mus exulans)

A species of rat was one of the four land mammals found in these islands when Captain Cook first visited New Zealand, the others being a dog, and two species of bats. Sir Joseph Banks says in his Journal (p. 224) :

On every occasion when we landed in this country, we have seen, I had almost said, no quadrupeds originally natives of it. Dogs and rats, indeed, there are, the former — as in other countries — companions of the men, and the latter probably brought hither by the men; especially as they are so scarce, that I myself have not had an opportunity of seeing even one.

This was not Forster's experience, for in his account of the second voyage of Cook, he says (vol. I, p. 201):

"Our fellow voyagers" (Furneaux in the 'Adventure') "found immense numbers of rats upon the Hippah rock (Queen Charlotte Sound), so that they were obliged to put some large jars in the ground, level with the sur- face, into which these vermin fell during the night, by running backwards and forwards, and great numbers of them were caught in this manner."

Always in reading this account, and considering the facts, I think it highly probable that these rats, spoken of by Forster, were not Maori rats at all, but were black rats (Mus rattus). Both Cook and Banks considered the native rat to be rare. The ' Endeavour ' was in Queen Charlotte Sound for some days in January and February, 1770, and some of the rats on board were almost certain to find their way ashore. Furneaux arrived in Queen Charlotte Sound in April, 1773, Cook, in the ' Resolution ' reaching it in May. Over three years had elapsed between the two visits, and on the second occasion the rats were found to be extraordinarily abundant. The rate of increase of

1 In Nature of 8th March, 1917, the following paragraph appeared: "Sir Frederick Treves, in the Observer of 25th Feb., directs attention to the grave results likely to follow from the introduction of the American Grey Squirrel into Richmond Park. Not only has it driven out our own native red squirrel, but it has also spread beyond the confines of the Park into adjoining gardens, working serious damage there. ' They eat everything that can be eaten, and destroy twenty times more than they eat.' ' The buds and shoots of young trees, apples, pears and stone fruits, peas and strawberries are all laid under a heavy contribution. Already it seems the Office of Works has given orders for the destruction of these pests. The order, how- ever, has come somewhat late, for they have already made their way into the open country of Surrey with a steady persistence and in good force. When it has reached the fruit gardens and young plantations of Surrey and Kent, we shall hear more.'

We are evidently in grave danger of having another very practical lesson in the folly of 'acclimatisation,' of which the rabbit in Australia forms a familiar and awful example."

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rats is known to be very great, and it seems to me that the animals met with on the second voyage were the progeny of some which got ashore in ijjo1.

The Rev. R. Taylor says that this animal, the Maori rat, was in general size about one-third that of the Norway rat. The Maoris used to make elaborate preparations to catch them, and hundreds would be caught at one hunting. Taylor says the animal is reported to run only in a straight line, and that the Maoris made special lines of roads in order to lead them into their traps, which were baited with miro and other berries; if these roads were crooked, they said the rats ran into the forest at the bends. They fed entirely on vegetable matter and were greatly prized as food by the natives, who also extracted much oil from them. The native rat quickly disappeared before other rats, and imported cats. It was extremely rare 30 or 40 years ago, and it is probably quite extinct now. As, however, the species is common in Polynesia, occasional immigrants may arrive in New Zealand from time to time.

Tancred writing of Canterbury in 1856, says: "the native rat forms numerous burrows, rendering the soil unsafe for a horse." He also says "the rat is being exterminated by the formidable invader the Norway rat."

W. T. L. Travers, writing in 1869, says:

It has been the fashion to assume that before the arrival of Europeans in this Colony, this creature was common, and to attribute its destruction to the European rat, and, indeed, the natives have been credited with a proverb in relation to this point. It is not in effect impossible that the

1 In Rats and Mice as Enemies of Mankind by M. A. C. Hinton (British Museum, Economic Series, No. 8), published in 1918, the following statement occurs : " There have been many attempts to calculate the reproductive potential of rats. For instance, F. von Fischer, in 1872, concluded that the progeny of a single pair might in ten years amount to no less than 48,319,698,843,030,334,720 individuals; Riicker, more recently, has computed the increase of a pair in five years at 940,369,969,152 rats.

Lantz was not so ambitious ; for the purposes of his calculations he assumed the rats to breed only three times a year, and to have average litters of ten. Breeding at this rate uninterruptedly for three years, producing sexes in equal numbers, and with no deaths, the progeny of a single pair at the ninth generation would be 20,155,392 rats.

Zuschlag assumed a pair to have six litters of eight in a year; that the young would breed when three and a half months old, then with equal sexes and no deaths the progeny at the end of the first year would be 880 rats.

Although such calculations are purely theoretical, and although their results, in ordinary circumstances, will never be approached in Nature, they are not extravagant, qua the power to reproduce, but are based upon moderate and con- servative estimates. In proof we may cite Kolazy's record that two females kept by him had twenty-six litters in a space of thirteen months, and produced 180 young — almost double the number assumed by Zuschlag. We can, therefore, readily under- stand how the progeny of a few rats introduced to a new country by a ship may, in favourable circumstances, succeed in overrunning the whole country in the space of a few years."

78 MAMMALIA

ultimate destruction of those which still existed when