Hutton. — Description of a new Land Shell. 48 



Aet. IX. — Note on the Rat that invaded Picton in March, 1884. 

 By Professor F. "W. Hutton. 



[Read before the Philosophical Institute of Canterbury, 5th May, 1887.] 



Mr. James Eutland has kindly sent me four heads of this rat, 

 and I have extracted the skull from one of them and compared 

 it with one of Mus maorium from the sandhills at Shag Eiver. 

 The two agree in all essential points, but in the Picton rat the 

 foramen magnum is rounded at the top, and the brain-case is 

 relatively rather larger. Length of skull, 1*35 inch ; width at 

 zygomatic arch, 0-6 ; depth from palate, 0415. Foramen 

 magnum, height 017, width 0*22. 



Mr. Meeson has given a good description of the rat, and has 

 identified it, correctly I think, with Mus maorium* The follow- 

 ing additional particulars have been furnished me by Mr. Rut- 

 land. 



The rat appears to have invaded Picton at the end of March, 

 and to have suddenly disappeared by the 20th April. Old 

 Maoris recognised it as the rat they used to eat in former times, 

 and said that swarming on to the low lands periodically was 

 always characteristic of it. Mr. Rutland says that a similar 

 visitation, but on a smaller scale, occurred at Picton in 1878 or 

 1879. 



These rats were often noticed climbing trees. In the Pelorus, 

 where they stopped longer, they built nests, like birds, in trees. 

 One in Mr. Rutland's possession had been constructed in the 

 crown of a tree-fern, from dried leaves and the hairs of the fern- 

 fronds. They fed on green vegetables as well as on berries. 



This rat is certainly different from Mus huegeli, Thomas, 

 from Fiji ("Proc. Zool. Soc," 1880, p. 11), and I should think 

 from M. exulans, Peale, also ; but I have seen no full description 

 of that species. 



Art. X. — Description of a new Land Shell, from the Province of 



Nelson. 



By Professor F. W. Hutton, F.G.S. 



[Read before the Philosophical Institute of Canterbury, 1st September, 1887.] 



Paryphanta lignaria, sp. nov. 



Shell depressed, rather solid, of five slowly increasing whorls, 

 and, apparently, narrowly umbilicated ; spire slightly elevated, 

 forming an angle of about 135°. "Whorls slightly convex and 



* " Trans. N.Z. Inst.," vol. xvii., p. 199. 



