150 MUTTON BIRDS 



dome, tidy and warm, and usually built and lined 

 with the one material. Oftenest the leaves of 

 the tutu or native bramble are worked in as 

 scales or shingles, and so made to curve and 

 overlap one another as to produce a rainproof 

 whole. It is, I believe exceptional to find two 

 materials used, but I have got a nest built of 

 ' lawyer,' and lined with the shredded blankety 

 leaves of the tall yellow-blossomed alien mullein. 

 Although this rat will on occasion take up his 

 quarters in town and build in men's houses, it 

 is the forest that knows him best. He is the 

 harmless frequenter of every bushman's camp; 

 for, where the grey rat will in a night rip and tear 

 a flour bag to pieces, the black rat will behave 

 more like a mouse, and nibble rather than rend 

 and waste. 



On each of our mainland camps on Stewart 

 Island, and also on one of our islet camps, we 

 were visited by one or two of these rats, and the 

 damage done by them was of the smallest. But 

 although it is comparatively harmless to man 

 and his property, it is the black rat that 

 threatens the extinction of many of our forest 

 birds. Even the weasels and stoats, I believe, 

 do less harm, for, though more blood-thirsty and 

 wanton in their hunting, their numbers are 

 insignificant compared with those of the rat; 

 they get, throughout the colony, the credit of all 

 damage done, often, I think, because the result 

 of their work is more apparent. A rat will 

 devour his prey whereas a stoat or weasel will, 

 after sucking the victim's blood, proceed on his 

 way. Only those who see much of our bird life 

 can appreciate the injury done in forest lands by 

 this black rat. 



