38 THE ANIMALS OF NEW ZEALAND 



The presence of two bats saves New Zealand from being styled 

 a country without land mammals. Although the Maori dog and 

 the native rat were once catalogued among the dominion's 

 mammalia, it is now generally agreed that these two animals were 

 brought by the Maoris at the time of the great migration from 

 Hawaiki, the mother country. New Zealand has no more right 

 to claim them as its own than it has to claim Clydesdale horses or 

 Southdown sheep. 



As the dog and the rat were the only candidates, except the 

 seals, for a division of the honours, the bats are left in undisputed 



iVon.Eiehiisanil Tcrivr.) 



Short-tailed Bat. 



possession, and are recognised as practically the sole land repre- 

 sentatives of this dominion in the highest class of the Animal 

 Kingdom. Our poverty in regard even to bats has caused com- 

 ment, and Dr. Wallace, in his Island Life, says that there is a 

 very remarkable contrast between New Zealand and the British 

 Isles, where there are at least twelve distinct species, though the 

 climate there is far less congenial to animal life. 



New Zealand's bats are popularly called the short-tailed and 

 the long-tailed. As if to make up in one respect for deficiency 

 in another, short-tail has long ears, and long-tail has short ones. 



The short-tailed species is remarkable and rare. To naturalists 

 it is one of the most interesting bats in the world. So marked 



