280 MAMMALS. 



species of a Water-Rat between the two are found in Australia, and a sej)arate genus, Hydromys, has 

 been established for their reception. 



New Zealand is one of the few lands which are without, or almost without, aboriginal Mammals. 

 One or two Eats, a small Eodent, and a questionable trace of an Otter, are all the non-marine 

 mammals which have been found on, or supposed to belong to, it. The Otter rests upon footprints 

 seen by Mr. Haast. The Bats are correct enough ; and there is no doubt that a Mouse or Rat 

 of some kind did, in former times, inhabit the coimtry ; but what it was is still very doubtful. 

 They are said to have been extremely numerous in old times, and seem to have been regarded much in 

 the same light as we regard game : for instance, the fact of their ancestors having caught Rats on any 

 portion of land gave the Maoris a certain right in it — I presume, a sort of servitude, or right of 

 shooting or hunting, which had to be bought up by the settler before he could obtain safe jDossession 

 of the land — although the claimant may never have caught Rats on it himself; which, indeed, could 

 now scarcely be done, because there are no Rats to catch, except " Pakeha Rats," that is, our 

 Black Rat; (for it seems that the Brown Rat has not yet secured its footing there), and these do 

 not coimt as game.* 



Regarding this animal DiefFenbach .says: — "There exists in New Zealand a frugivorous 

 native Rat, called Kiore Maori (Indigenous Rat) by the natives, which they distinguish from the 

 English Rat (not the Norway Rat), which is introduced, and called Kiore Pakea (Strange Rat). 

 On the former they fed very largely in former times ; but it has now become so scarce, owing to 

 the extermination carried on against it by the European Rat, that I could never obtain one. A 

 few, however, are still found in the interior, at Rotu Rua, where they have been seen by the Rev. 

 Mr. Chapman, who described them as being much smaller than the Norway Rat. The natives 

 never eat the latter. It is a favourite theme with them to speculate on their own extermination 

 by the Europeans, in the same manner as the English Rat has exterminated their Indigenous 



Rat."t 



In the " Proceedings of the Royal Tasmanian Society" I find a copy of a letter from the 

 Rev. William Colenso, dated Hawkesbay, Sept. 1850, in which he says: — "I have procured two 

 specimens of the ancient, and all but quite extinct. New Zealand Rat, which, until just now (and 

 notwithstanding all my endeavours, backed too by large rewards), I never saw. It is, without 

 doubt, a true Mus, smaller than our English Black Rat {Mus Rattus), and not unlike it. This little 

 animal once inhabited the plains and Feigns forests of New Zealand in countless thousands, and was 

 both the common food and great delicacy of the natives ; and already it is all but quite classed 

 among the things which were."J 



There is another more recent notice, which may relate to this animal, in a geological 

 report by Mr. Jidius Ilaast : — "Traces of a quadruped of smaller size, of nocturnal habits, the 

 stride of which was between seven and eight inches, indicating that its mode of progression 

 was by jumj)s or springs, were also discovered by me in the river-bed of the Hopkins, the 

 stream which forms Lake Ohou ; and as there is every reason to believe that this animal still 

 exists in great numbers, hundreds of tracks having been formed in one night in the fresh- 



* " The Old Settler in New Zealand," quoted from t Dieffenbach, " Travels in New Zealand," 1843, p. 



"Maori Sketches" in " Cornhill Magazine," Oct. 1865, p. 18b. 



£01. J Rev. W. Colenso, in "Proceedings of the Royal 



Society of Van Pieman's Land," 1851, p. 301. 



