White. — On the Bats of Neic Zealand. 25S 



clown breast ; darker brown colour clown front of fore-legs ; 

 dark-reddish ring of colour round to inside hind-legs at the 

 hock, in the lowest of the long body-hair ; top of back darker 

 than sides ; tail smooth, hardly any short hairs ; toes white, 

 hind-toes with patch of dark colour on middle knuckles ; fore- 

 head or front of face looking to project, or rounded by hairs 

 standing out ; whiskers black. As with the other rats and 

 mice, the thumb on each fore-foot is wanting the top joint and 

 nail, and one of my specimens was actually without any sign 

 of the thumb itself. 



Of the few specimens taken, a male and a female (31. 

 maorium /) were forwarded to your Museum at Napier, together 

 with a specimen which seemed distinct from either M . maorium 

 or dccinnanus both in shape of outline and in having the light 

 colour of the belly extending up the sides ; also a specimen of 

 M. rattus, taken at the same time. I have never been able 

 to find out whether all four specimens are now in your 

 Museum . 



To support the supposition that the black rat was a sur- 

 vival or escapee from a Spanish vessel, besides the name 

 "pero," a dog, which is similar to the Spanish, we may 

 speculate on the name " Pani," sometimes spoken of in Maori 

 tradition as a woman the wife of Tiki, who, having come to 

 New Zealand and been well received by the natives, in re- 

 turn for this kindness made a special voyage to a far country, 

 and returned bringing that one-time- valuable fruit the kumara, 

 which previously had been unknown in New Zealand. This 

 name "Pani" may be the Maori rendering of " JEJspani," a 

 Spaniard, and "Pani" is mythologically said to be the wife 

 of E'tiki, a deified ancestor of the Maori race. Dieffenbach 

 remarks on the word " kaipuke," a ship, as being similar to a 

 Spanish word. No reasonable explanation can be given of its 

 meaning, treated as original Maori — kai, to eat ; puke, the 

 hill — and I believe this name for ship is not found among 

 other Polynesian peoples. 



I should have expected that the "kiore maori" would have 

 been placed in the class Arvicola, or " dwellers in the field," 

 owing to its habits and to its being a strict vegetable-feeder. 

 In the forest it eats the berries of the hinau-tree, and perhaps 

 of the tawa and pines. It is quite common to see the little 

 heaps of the empty oval cases of the hinau-berry, having a 

 minute hole perforated by the " kiore maori " at the one end, 

 through which the kernel has been deftly extracted — a proof 

 that the animal picks up a single berry, and each time returns 

 to a favourite seat, where he makes his feeding-place. But I 

 have never seen berries of the other forest-trees so collected. 



This rat also eats certain leaves, such as the karamu, and 

 possibly of other shrubs. The black rat also eats leaves, as 



