BATS. 281 



fallen snow, we may hope that some specimens of this entirely unknown quadi'uped will yet be 

 obtained."* 



I cannot help thinking that Mr. Haast's report gives us the truest glimpse of the animal : and 

 that Mr. Colenso's bribes had defeated his own object, by inducing the natives to palm off upon 

 him two young or small specimens of the Common Black Rat ; or it may be specimens of the normal 

 dimensions, supposing the animal to have become naturalized, and been somewhat reduced in size 

 in course of the process of modification into a new species, like the Ascension Island and Galapago 

 Island Rats of Mr. Darwin. It is in favour of this view that the Black Rat is the one which has 

 been introduced there ; because we read in the quotation from Dieffenbach that the English Rat 

 which is introduced is not the Norway Rat, and there is no other which it can be but the Black Rat, 

 because there is no other English Rat which attaches itself to man, sailing about in his shijDs, and 

 accompanying his commerce. Further, if the Rat is a jumping i-at, as Mr. Haast's report implies, 

 this would bring it near the Australian Jumping Rats (Hapalotis) ; and as Australia is the 

 nearest land to New Zealand (although distant upwards of 1000 miles), it is perhaps the existing 

 coimtry from which it is most probable that New Zealand should have drawn its inhabitants ; and 

 we know that, in point of fact, it is from Australia that the chief portion of its non-endemic flora 

 has been drawn, as much as one-fourth of tlic whole (or 222 out of 935, when Hooker wrote his " Flora 

 of New Zealand") being Australian. There is, however, another source from which it might be 

 drawn, viz. America ; that coimtry is nearest to New Zealand on the other side, and has supplied 

 about an eighth of its flora. A true specimen of this Rat would, therefore, be extremely interesting ; 

 and a glance at its teeth would at once reveal its past history. 



Our information regarding it is, however, imperfect in more respects than as regards its personal 

 appearance. I have not found it anjT^here mentioned whether it is found both on Middle Island and 

 North Island, or on only one of these. The first two of the above quotations refer to places in 

 North Island, the last to Middle Island. If it is confined only to one, it would be still further in- 

 teresting to find if that is the island which has most afiinitj' with the country whose fonn the Rat 

 bears ; for it would appear from the flora of the islands that the relations of the two to Australia and 

 America are in different proportions, indicating different dates for their separation from them. 



Jumping Mice (Meriones.) (Map 80.) There are two sections of ilicc with long hind-feet and 

 short fore-legs, which leap like Kangaroos. One of them, consisting of the Jerboas, has characters 

 of dentition and other peculiarities, on which it has by some been erected into a separate and 

 independent family, of the same rank as the Mice ; the other is not so distant from the latter 

 and is composed of species of Mice, between the true Mice and the Sigmodontes, having the molars 

 flat and the leaping structure of the Jerboas. The Meriones are not found in the New World. 

 The genera are confined to Africa or the Continental parts of Asia. Some have been described 

 from Labrador ; but these were not true Merioxes but J.\culi, part of the next group, the Dipodid.b. 



Hapolotis. (Map 80.) This is an Australian genus, with jumping powers, like the Meriones and 

 Jerboas, but differing from both. It is, however, more akin to the former than the latter. It is a 

 desert animal ; and at least the half of its sjaecies, if not more, is confined to the far interior of 

 Australia. They are handsome little creatures, with a tufted brushy tail like the Jerboas. 



* Haast (Julius), "Report of a Topographical and Geo- vernmcnt." Nelson, 1861, from quotation in "Nat. Hist. 

 logical Exploration of the Western Districts of the Nelson Rev." Jan. 1864, p. 3(1. 

 Province, New Zealand, undertaken for the Provincial Go- 



o o 



