AND OTHER BIRDS 1^9 



Chapter XVIII. 



THE WEKA. 



)ATS are the worst enemies of our 

 birds; and perhaps the bush, or tree 

 rat is even moi'e destructive than his 

 grey relative. The former is I'eally 

 the old English black rat, and all the 

 skins taken by me from specimens shot or 

 trapped in the bush, were j^ronounced by the 

 British Museum authorities to belong to this 

 breed. 



The black rat's domicile in outward form is 

 not unlike the untidy structure of a house 

 Sparrow; and when his quarters lie in fanning 

 districts, the nests are conspicuous, high on tall 

 hedges of English hawthorn and African box- 

 thorn. In the bush, they may be found in masses 

 of lawyer, clumps of black vine, thickets of 

 supple-jack and dense shrubberies of tutu. I 

 have seen them also built just like an English 

 Wren's nest into the fibry rootlets of an over- 

 blown tree, or fastened into the clinging rata 

 that often ivies the face of a limestone cliff. 

 Most rarely they are to be found in clefts of 

 trees or as burrows in steep, dry banks. When 

 it is further remembered that the black rat will 

 also build in the dwellings of man, it will be seen 

 how catholic are the tastes of the brute, and how 

 adaptable his habits. Within the rough and 

 rude exterior of his nest extends an elongated 



