White. — On the Bats of New Zealand. 251 



Or, less literally,— 



Give thanks to those above ; 



Give thanks to those below, 



According to my mother, 



My rat he said 



By the snare (will be caught). 



Give thanks ! Give thanks ! 



The night falls ; it falls, at Tuhua.* 



The day comes ; it falls on Karewa. f 



Hence the rats assemble. 



In the Transactions, vol. xxv., p. 49, is a note on M us 

 maorium, Hutton, by Sir Walter L. Buller, who at the same 

 time exhibited a specimen which was taken at Nelson at the 

 time of the great irruption of rats into that district, recorded 

 by Mr. Meeson : " It is identical with the species of rat collected 

 by Mr. Reischek some years ago on the Little Barrier and 

 other islands in the Hauraki Gulf, specimens of which were 

 taken by me to England in 1886. I compared those with 

 specimens sent to the British Museum by His Excellency Sir 

 George Grey about the year 1848, and found the rat to be the 

 same. Mr. Oldfield Thomas, of the Zoological Department, 

 . is of opinion that the species is identical with the 

 Polynesian rat (Mus exulans) (Peale, Expl. Exped.). This 

 form is known to have a wide range, there being specimens in 

 the British Museum from the Fiji Islands, from Norfolk 

 Island, and from New T Caledonia." Mr. Oldfield Thomas, by 

 comparison of the bone framework of this rat with measure- 

 ments of remains found by Professor Hutton in Maori kitchen- 

 middens, or feeding-places,, considers it identical with the rat 

 which was contemporary with the extinct moa. 



During the discussion which followed Sir W. L. Buller's 

 paper, ' : Captain Mair remarked that this little rat was exactly 

 similar to that inhabiting White Island, in the Bay of Plenty." 

 (Transactions, vol. xxv., p. 535.) 



I am in doubt as to what in future will be the 

 scientific name of " kiore maori." Professor Hutton, of 

 Christchurch, writes me as follows : "The Maori rat (Mus 

 maorium) has been identified in the British Museum as Mus 

 exulans (Peale), which is now its name. This rat was origin- 

 ally described from Fiji." On the other hand, Professor T. 

 Jeffery Parker, Otago, writes, "I may say that Mr. Oldfield 

 Thomas, of the British Museum, one of the leading authorities 

 on mammalia, considers the Maori rat a good species. I 

 believe he calls it M. maorium (Hutton), not M. exulans, 

 but am not quite sure." 



* Tuhua = Mayor Island, Bay of Plenty. 



t Karewa rock, seven or eight miles off Tauranga. where the tuatara lizard is 

 caught. 



