38 Transactions. — Zoology. 



tion.^ 5 ) In fact, the bones of this animal have only been found 

 in the ancient kitchen-middens, or among the debris scattered 

 around these primitive ovens. But there, contrary to what 

 Dr. Haast says, they are found in abundance. I can think of 

 scarcely any explorer who has not recorded their existence, 

 and they are always associated with moa-bones. 



Here, however, a fact presents itself which seems singular 

 at first sight, and upon which th.e learned New-Zealander has 

 insisted at different times. The bones of all kinds lying 

 about in the neighbourhood of the ovens are only very rarely 

 gnawed.( 84 ) Haast inferred from that that the moa-hunters 

 were not accompanied by dogs ; for these latter, he says, 

 would not have refrained from attacking the remains of their 

 masters' feasts. But in expressing himself thus he forgets that 

 the canine race taken to New Zealand was primarily intended 

 to furnish food and clothing. ( 85 ) The Maori dog, which 

 came from the islands of Manaia, belonged to this Polynesian 

 race, which all travellers describe as being vegetarian, and 

 must have retained its natural habits in New Zealand. ( 8G ) 

 Besides, if the dogs had taken to eating meat, their masters 

 would have quickly discovered that this food affected in any- 

 thing but an agreeable manner the flavour of their flesh, and 

 they would not have failed to guard the observance of the 

 habitual course. ( 87 ) It is quite natural, therefore, that the 



by light to the ariki or chief of the territory (Journal des Savants, 

 January, 1873). 



(83.) Captain Rowan has discovered the skeleton of a dog in the 

 hollow trunk of a tree in the bed of £ river near the sea-coast. This 

 tree was at a depth of 18ft. and underneath a bed of lignite. Beside the 

 bones were found the hair of the animal, fibres of phorrnium, and a stalk of 

 the same plant. It is evident that the body had been carried into this 

 hollow by some overflow of the river, and that this event was of modern 

 origin. That is Dr. Hector's view of the matter. This scientist adds 

 that the circumstances under which these remains were found tend to 

 refer them to a period further back than any previously obtained. (" On 

 the Remains of a Dog found by Captain Rowan near White Cliffs, Tara- 

 naki," Transactions, vol. ix., p. 243.) 



(84.) The only fact of this kind that I have seen mentioned in the 

 different memoirs written by the New Zealand scientists is that recorded 

 by Hutton. Two moa-bones collected by his collaborator, Mr. Booth, near 

 the ovens of the Shag River, had been gnawed by dogs. (Loc. cit., Trans- 

 actions, vol. viii., p. 106.) 



(85.) "They are carrying some dogs with them, as these would be 

 very valuable in the islands they were going to, for supplying by their 

 increase a good article of food and skins for warm cloaks" (Sir George 

 Grey, " Polynesian Mythology," p. 214). 



(86.) The dog was called kuri by the Maoris. This local race was 

 small in size, of a brown or yellowish colour, long ears, and bushy tails. It 

 is extinct now, and replaced by the European dog. 



(87.) The flesh of our European dogs, who all, more or less, eat meat, 

 has a particular flavour, reminding one of the odour of a badly-kept ken- 

 nel, as was only too well known during the siege of Paris. 



