538 Transactions. 



Hahits. 



During the first week in January, 1908, few rats were seen, but their 

 numbers increased gradually, until in March and April they were plentiful. 



In Juno rats were very numerous about our camp in Denham Bay, 

 being seen frequently in the daytime, but more especially in the evenings, 

 when they invaded our whares.* They searched everywhere for food, but 

 did not gnaw into any of our boxes. Although naturally timid, they would 

 explore every part of the whare if we kept quite still, and, as soon as the 

 light was out, jump up on the table near which two of our party slept, and 

 would sometimes even run over us as we lay in our bunks. We poisoned 

 them periodically with arsenic, but it merely checked their numbers for 

 a few days, after which they appeared as numerous as ever. 



As showing the large number of rats that exist on Sunday Island, the 

 following figures are given on the authority of Mr. R. S. Bell. He estimated 

 that in three years 44,000 were killed by poisoning and other means, while 

 on one occasion 173 were caught in a single night near the cultivations 

 in Denham Bay by means of a trap made with a harbour-buoy. 



The rats decreased in numbers during July. In August, on wet even- 

 ings but few were to be seen, but on fine nights a fair number came about 

 our whares. During September and October very few were noticed. 



That the rats disappear into the ground during the summer months 

 seems certani. for on one occasion Mr. R. S. Bell accidentally dug out one 

 of their burrows and discovered a number of rats which appeared some- 

 what sleepy and dazed on being turned out into the daylight. During 

 their out-season they usually retire to their holes in the daytime ; when 

 surprised in the forest they immediately make for their burrows and dis- 

 appear. It is probable that they breed in the ground, as young ones 

 were noticed chiefly at the end of summer. 



Their food consists principally of fruits. Bananas, oranges, passions, 

 grapes, and figs all disappear before hordes of rats, and the settlers on 

 Sunday Island must protect their fruit-trees if they wish to have any share 

 of the fruit. A piece of tin nailed round the stem at a distance of about 

 2 ft. from the ground will prevent rats from climbing the tree, but bananas 

 must be cut just as the first signs of yellow begin to appear in the fruit, 

 and placed in some position where rats are unable to get at them. 



Sunday Island rats are not strictly frugivorous, but, on the contrary, 

 \vill eat any kind of food. Birds and their eggs, when they are to be ob- 

 tained, are eaten, also the flesh and fat of goats, while specimens of rats 

 I had gathered for examination when thrown out were usually devoured 

 by their own kind. The beaches were constantly searched, and any fish 

 or other animals cast up by the sea eaten by rats. 



Origin of the Bat in the Kermadecs. 



When first discovered by Europeans, Maeauley Island was described as 

 having a " great number of rats and mice " (Watts, 1789, p. 228). There is 

 no similar record for Sunday Island, though this island is now overrun with 

 the Pacific rat {Mus exulans), which could scarcely have been introduced by 

 Europeans, who have been the only visitors to the group since its discovery, 

 a little more than a hundred years ago, and who Avould have introduced. 



* Huts made of a framework of poles, with sides and roofs of rushes, palm-leaves, 

 or banana-leaves. 



