De Quatrefages. — On Moas and Moa-lmnters. 19 



day the accuracy of the traditions for which we are indebted 

 to a former Governor of New Zealand. They were not in- 

 digenous to these Islands, but they were imported by the new- 

 comers. ( 7 ) 



The mammals which were missing in the natural fauna of 

 this archipelago were somewhat replaced there by birds be- 

 longing to a special type, represented in a very small number 

 of species in other parts of the world, and which here ex- 

 hibited a most exceptional development. I am referring to 

 the birds with rudimentary wings, with filamentary feathers, 

 so to speak, incapable of flight, and bearing a strong resem- 

 blance to the ostrich or to the cassowary. ( 8 ) Four or five 



documents, and all those which relate to this line of argument, in a 

 work entitled, " Les Polynesiens et leurs Migrations," with four accom- 

 panying maps. I shall not do more than recall the fact that Hawaiki, 

 which is spoken of here, is one of the Manaia Islands, and most 

 probably Armstrong or Bourouti in our present chart. 



(7.) There exist at present in New Zealand mammals brought there 

 by Europeans, the acclimatisation of which was not without its disadvan- 

 tages. Our rat has almost completely destroyed the rat imported by the 

 immigrants from Hawaiki, the kiore of the Maoris. It is needless to say 

 the mouse accompanied it. Our cat has become wild in these Islands, 

 and it is probably one of these animals which has been mistaken for an 

 indigenous otter, which appears to have once been seen. Our rabbit has 

 multiplied there, as in Australia, to such an extent as to have become a 

 pest to the farmers — so much so that some years ago the Acclimatisation 

 Society of Paris received a request for a certain number of weasels, for 

 which 100 francs a pair was offered. The intention was to liberate 

 them in the hope that they would increase, and exterminate the rabbits. 

 But it was feared the remedy might become worse than the evil. As to the 

 pigs introduced by Cook in 1769, they are now so numerous, and occasion 

 such ravages, that hands are engaged for the express purpose of destroying 

 them. Hochstetter tells us that in twenty months three men, hunting over 

 an extent of 250,000 acres, killed no less than 25,000 wild pigs, and undertook 

 to kill 15,000 more on the same ground (" New Zealand," p. 162). These wild 

 .pigs will in the end accomplish the complete extirpation of the last 

 apterous birds, whose nests they destroy. Nevertheless the acclimatisa- 

 tion of foreign animals has progressed with a surprising rapidity in New 

 Zealand. Fourteen species of birds from Europe, Asia, and America 

 have made new homes for themselves in this ocean-girt country. The 

 colonists have not only imported sparrows and larks, but also the pheasant 

 and Californian quail. All the new arrivals have driven out the indi- 

 genous species, the representatives of which become more and more rare, 

 several of them being threatened with a speedy extinction. We may add, 

 by the way, that the invasion of New Zealand by foreign plants has been 

 no less general nor less destructive to the indigenous growths. Our 

 cereals and our vegetables everywhere replace the potato (kumara), and 

 are causing the destruction of the fern-root on which the Maoris sub- 

 sisted. Even our weeds, though involuntarily introduced, have so spread 

 that they choke the plants of the country. "In the Christchurch plain," 

 writes M. Filhol, "however close the search maybe, not a Polyne tan 

 plant is to be found. One might as well go through our French province of 

 Beauce " (" Kapport sur l'Exposition faite au Museum des Objets d'His- 

 toirc Naturcllo rocucillis par MM. De L'Isle et Filhol," loc. cit.). 



(8.) Out of New Zealand tho ornithological typo of which we 



