126 M. de Quatrefages on 



the exactitude of tlie traditions for the knowledge of which we 

 are indebted to the late Governor of New Zealand. They 

 did not originate in those islands, but they were imported 



there *. 



The Mammalia which did not occur in the natural fauna of 

 this archipelago were to a certain extent replaced by birds 

 belonging to a peculiar type, represented elsewhere by a very 

 small number of species, but which here acquired an abso- 

 lutely exceptional development. 1 refer to birds with rudi- 

 mentary wings and with loose-barbed feathers, incapable 



' Les PoljTiesiens et leiirs migrations; accompauied by four maps. I only 

 remind the reader that Hcnvmki here mentioned is one of the Manaia 

 Islands, and probably Armstrong Island or Bourouti of our atlases. 



* New Zealand now possesses mammals which the Europeans have 

 introduced there, and the acclimatization of which has not been without 

 its inconveniences. Our common rat has almost entirely destroyed the 

 rat imported by the colonists from Hawaiki, the Kiore of the Maoris. 

 As a matter of course the mouse has accompanied it. Our cat has re- 

 turned to the wild state in this island, and it is probably one of these 

 animals that has been taken for an indigenous species of otter supposed 

 to have been once seen. Our rabbit has multiplied there, as in Australia, 

 to sucli an extent as to become a plague in the cultivated lauds ; so much 

 so indeed that a few years ago the Acclimatization Society of Paris 

 received an application for a certain number of weasels, for which 100 

 francs a pair were offered. They were to have been set free, in the hope 

 that they would multiply and wage war against the rabbits. But it is 

 easv to understand that the remedy might have been worse than the 

 disease. As to the pigs, introduced by Cook in 1769, they are now so 

 numerous and commit such ravages that hunters are expressly engaged 

 to destroy them. Hochstetter tells us that in twenty months three men, 

 huntino- over an extent of 250,000 acres, killed no fewer than 25,000 wild 

 pigs, and undertook to kill 15,000 more upon the same ground (' New 

 Ze^alaud,' p. 102). These wUd pigs will speedily bring about the complete 

 extinction of the last wingless birds of the country {Ajjtery.f), of which 

 they destroy the nests. 



In other respects the acclimatization of foreign animals has proceeded 

 in New Zealand with astonishing rapidity. Fourteen species of bu-ds, 

 comino- from Europe, Asia, and America, have made themselves a new 

 home in this maritime country. The colonists have transported there 

 not only the sparrows and larks, but also the pheasant and the Califor- 

 nian quail. AU these new comers have driven before them the indige- 

 nous species, the representatives of which are becoming scarcer and scarcer, 

 while several of them appear to be menaced with a speedy extinction. 



We may notice in passing that the invasion of New Zealand by foreign 

 plants has been no less general and no less fatal to the indigenous vege- 

 tation. Our cereals and our vegetables everywhere replace the batatas 

 and cause the eradication of the ferns on the roots of which the Maoris 

 fed. Even om- loeeds, transported here involuntarily, have multiplied to 

 such an extent as to extinguish those of the comitry. " In the plain of 

 Christchurch," writes M. Filhol, " it is in vain to seek — we can no longer 

 find — a Polynesian plant ; one might fancy oneself in Beauce " ('•' Eapport 

 sur Texpositiou," &c., loc. cit.). 



