216 Transactions. — Zoology. 



is so readily distinguished from the large grey Norwegian, 

 that the present generation of New-Zealanders have recollec- 

 tion of it from their early childhood, even to this day ; that 

 the black rat is now on the west coast of the South Island, 

 and is increasing in numbers rapidly, and, wonder of wonders, 

 the fierce Norwegian is becoming the scarcer of the two, and 

 even the native rat, so much smaller than the other two 

 species, and which for many years was said to be extinct — 

 said by Dieffenbach to be destroyed by the " kiore pakeha " 

 (the black rat) before the year 1840 — and which native rat 

 Mr. Colenso could never find, although offering great rewards 

 to the Maoris for specimens — that this small inoffensive 

 M. maorium is actually to be found, and is said to be increas- 

 ing in numbers in Westland, notwithstanding the close pro- 

 pinquity of the two fiercer species. History does not repeat 

 itself in this case, and I would ask the question, Has the 

 identity of our black rat been sufficiently studied, so as to 

 clearly prove that it is M. rattus of Europe ? We may assume 

 that ill", rattus is a later arrival to New Zealand than M. 

 maorium — that is, "kiore maori " — for the former was not 

 known to the early settlers in the South Island, and I con- 

 sider that the latter was present, but not identified ; being 

 smaller, and of a grey colour, it was thought to be a three- 

 parts-grown Norwegian. 



Mr. Cheeseman, in the Transactions, vol. xxvi., p. 219, says, 

 " Mr. Colenso, whose knowledge of the natural history of New 

 Zealand and close acquaintance with the Maori race should 

 give great weight to his opinions, believes that no living 

 European has seen the true Maori rat — that it has vanished 

 from the list of living beings, and has become as extinct as 

 the moa or dodo. Others, whose views are, perhaps, equally 

 entitled to attention, believe that the small black rat still 

 found in forest districts, and on the outlying islands, and 

 which occasionally makes incursions in considerable numbers 

 into the settled portions of the country, is the true indigenous 

 species. But, whichever of these views is correct, a compari- 

 son of skulls found in old Maori eating-j3laces seems to have 

 established the fact that the Maori rat was identical with a 

 species widely distributed in Polynesia, and which has been 

 known to have been unintentionally carried by the Polynesian 

 natives from one group of islands to another." (On what 

 authority? — ■ T. W.) "The Maoris have a tradition they 

 brought the rat with them from Hawaiki, and, until remains 

 of the animal have been found in deposits older than the time 

 of the Maori occupation, we must attribute considerable 

 weight to that view." These remarks are made by a dweller 

 in the North, and show the estimation in which the black rat 

 is held in those parts. 



