256 Transactions. — Zoology. 



Our honorary secretary, Mr. W. Dinwiddie, gives me the 

 following information : — 



" I have got a derivation of 'Pohawaiki ' from Toha Rahu- 

 rahu, a native clergyman of the Wairoa, through Mr. James 

 Grindell, licensed interpreter. He says, po = night, haxva%ki = 

 the far country, and the combination means that the beast 

 was a mysterious visitor from an unknown land shrouded in 

 darkness. He says that is the recognized derivation. He 

 remembers the old rat — some dark, some light, and others 

 grey or speckled. [The old black rat turns grey. — T.W.] 

 Mr. Grindell says he recollects them (?) in New Zealand 

 up to about 1860. But he says there is no distinction be- 

 tween 'pohawaiki' and ' kiore pakeha.' It was the brown 

 rat " (which presumably is M. decumanus. — T. W.). 

 Mr. Dinwiddie further informs me, — 



" The black rat w 7 as not known in Europe before the six- 

 teenth century. It is first mentioned by Gesner in his 

 ' Historia Animalium,' published in Zurich about 1587. It 

 is commonly supposed to be of South Asiatic origin. The 

 brown rat (M. decumanus) is probably from the same quarter. 

 Bell says South Asia. Buckland says, ' It is now agreed 

 by most naturalists that it is a native of India and Persia, 

 that it spread onwards into European Russia, and was thence 

 transferred in merchant-ships to England and elsewhere 

 (p. 62). 



" Pallas fixes 1727 as the date of its appearance in Russia 

 (Bell). It arrived in Paris 'beginning of eighteenth century,' 

 and in London ' about the same time.' 



" The brown rat speedily mastered the black in England, 

 but it is difficult to say at what date they would be said to be 

 exterminated. They must have been common enough up to 

 the first quarter of this century, especially in shipping locali- 

 ties. Buckland, writing in 1857, says the brown rat has 

 ' nearly exterminated the black rat.' 



"Bell (2nd ed., 1874, largely rewritten; 1st ed., 1839) 

 says the black rat is now rarely found, except in old houses 

 in large cities. Fifteen or twenty years ago this animal was 

 not rare in several localities in Warwickshire, ' but we now 

 doubt the possibility of obtaining a single example.' He 

 records the finding of a colony at Pitlochry, in Scotland, in 

 1860, as ' the first ever heard of within the memory of any 

 person living in the country.' In Ireland it is now rare, 

 though not so thirteen years ago. 



"In 1859 Sallin exhibited specimens to the Linnsean 

 Society, and both he and Buckland speak as if they were 

 readily obtainable. Buckland says at that time the chief 

 locality was the Isle of Dogs. I should think that even later 

 than that it was to be found among shipping on the Thames. 



