248 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



rat, may be taken as illustrative of the smaller quadrupeds. 

 The mental faculties of the Norway rat are of a high order, 

 and this animal has now established itself over a considerable 

 portion of the civilised world. It is commonly asserted that 

 it owes this extensive range to man's inti-oduction, but cer- 

 tainly man has not purposely imported the rat into new 

 countries ; the rat, impelled by its own mental vigour and 

 enterprising disposition, has followed in man's wake, and 

 established itself in regions where man certainly did not want 

 its presence. The rat possesses a great capacity for adapting 

 itself to circumstances, and will, as occasion arises, eat fish, 

 flesh, or grain, while the records of the New Zealand Institute 

 show that in this colony it has developed a taste for shell- 

 fish. 



From amongst the birds we may take an almost cosmo- 

 politan family, the crows, ■which are distinguished for their 

 intelligence ; in fact, one genus of the family seems to hold 

 something like Courts of justice. for the punishment of offen- 

 ders ; and these birds likewise display great capacity for vary- 

 ing their diet, which must be of material assistance to them 

 in the struggle for life, some feeding on fruit, some on insects, 

 and others on carrion. 



If we turn to the denizens of the ocean, the Cephalopods, 

 which are the most intelligent of the molluscs, have a world- 

 wide distribution, while, in point of geological time, their 

 remains can be traced as far back as the Cambrian formation. 



The sudden incursion of many varieties of foreign animals 

 into New Zealand would have furnished an interesting test of 

 the power of the native fauna to meet the invasion but for the 

 circumstance of its being accompanied by the arrival of large 

 bodies of civilised men, whose wholesale destruction, not only 

 of the indigenous animals but also of their food and shelter, is 

 beyond the power of the native fauna to resist. Yet, were it 

 not for the actual direct destruction of much of the native 

 fauna by the colonists, the intelligence of quite a consider- 

 able number of our New Zealand birds is apparently suffi- 

 cient to have enabled them to survive amid theu' changed 

 surroundings and new competitors, although in reduced 

 numbers. The kea, kaka, weka, parroquet, the different 

 species of hawks and ducks, the kingfisher, tui, fantail, wax- 

 eye, cuckoo, and swamp-hen, all seem able to hold their own 

 against everything but the gun and other means used by 

 men to destroy them. All of these birds are intelligent, 

 and some highly so. The kea's suddenly developed car- 

 nivorous propensities, which have so often been commented 

 upon, prove that it possesses an adaptable nature well 

 fitted to cope with novel conditions of life. Mr. Green, in 

 his work on " The High Alps of New Zealand," gives his 



