Best. — Maori Forest Lore. 243 



maori, though this statement scarcely agrees with his remarks (see supra) 

 on Mus decumanus. Mr. Meeson thinks that there may have been two 

 species of native rats. 



Dr. Buller's Mus novce-zealandice (Trans. N.Z. Inst, vol. iii, page 2, 1870) 

 had ■' fur above bluish-black." This he claims was a specimen of the 

 old More maori, or native rat. But this description seems to fit a bluish- 

 black bush-dwelling rat now found in the Tuhoe or Ure-wera district, and 

 which the old Natives say is not the old native rat, but one introduced 

 by Europeans. My local information on this subject was obtained from 

 two old men of the Tuhoe Tribe — Tutakangahau, born about 1830 or 1832, 

 and Te Puia Nuku, who seems to be some years older. They both belong 

 to cannibal days, both saw the old hiore maori in their youth, saw it die out, 

 and the two introduced species overrun the land. 



Dieffenbach, writing in 1843, said, " The indigenous rat has now become 

 so scarce . . . that I could never obtain one." 



Tamarau Waiari, an old man of the Tuhoe Tribe, who was born in 1830, 

 said that the old native rat disappeared in 1838 from the Ure-wera district. 

 Though all the old men state that it rapidly disappeared after the im- 

 ported species reached this district, yet it is improbable that it was exter- 

 minated in the space of one year. It may have been last trapped or last seen 

 in 1838, or the imported rats may have first invaded this district and com- 

 menced to wage war against the kiore maori about that time. Anyhow, all 

 agree that shortly after the arrival of the imported rats in this district the 

 trapping of the native rat was given up, so scarce had they become. 



Judge J. A. Wilson states that the hiore was unknown to the original 

 Polynesian people of New Zealand ; that it was not imported until the arrival 

 of the last migration. This seems highly probable. It appears, however, 

 that rat-bones have been found mixed with moa bones in the South Island, 

 and also in a subfossil state. 



The two species of rat found about my own primitive camp in the Tuhoe 

 district, and which are bold and troublesome in winter-time, are the grey 

 Norwegian rat (so called) and a bluish-black rat which I take to be Mus 

 rattus. The former appears to be an omnivorous creature, and eats leather, 

 with relish apparently, at times, and has of late made a hearty meal off an 

 Angora-hair saddle-cinch. 



Mr. Taylor White speaks of the kiore maori as being of a grey colour, 

 and smaller than the so-called Norwegian rat (Trans. N.Z. Inst., vol. xxvii, 

 1894). 



In vol. xxviii of these Transactions, page 3, Professor T. Kirk says, 

 " The place formerly occupied by the Maori rat in the North Island is now 

 so fully occupied by its old enemy the black rat as to afford a striking 

 instance of complete replacement." The above writer states that the Mus 

 maorium of Hutton is the old-time native rat, or kiore maori, and that it 

 still survives at various places, north and south. 



The origin of the rat, according to Maori myth, is as follows : " The 

 origin of the kiore maori was one Hine-mata-iti, daughter of Pani (the parent 

 or producer of the kumara, or sweet potato)." So said old Pio of Ngati- 

 Awa, of Te Teko, born about 1824. Again, he says, " The first fire given 

 by Mahuika to Maui was the little finger (to-iti) of her left hand. That 

 to-iti represenJts Hine-mata-iti, who was the matua (parent) of the kiore.'''' 

 And again, " The ancestor of the kiore was Pani-tinaku — that is to say, a 

 female child of Pani's. Her descendants are the kiore, who are a very 

 numerous people. The reason of their being assailed (by man) was because 



