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CHAPTER XXXI. 



THE STOCKING OP TUTIRA BY ALIEN ANIMALS. 



PRECEDING chapters have shown how in the vegetable kingdom useful 

 and ornamental plants have been outnumbered by less worthy species. 

 In like manner animal aliens, parasitical and predaceous, have come to 

 exceed purposely-imported breeds. 



It will be convenient firstly to consider the history of four of these 

 self-invited strangers, prior to the days of ordered government, prior to 

 the establishment of acclimatisation societies. 



Of this quartette, three have been established in the land of their 

 adoption for over a century, and one for scarcely less. Their dates of 

 arrival, their journeyings, can now only be inferred ; all that can be 

 positively stated is the fact of their presence. All of them are members 

 of the rat family. 



The rat, in fact, seems to be almost parasitic to mankind, travelling 

 in his shipping, feeding on his crops and stored goods ; equally with his 

 overlord and host, stocking the four quarters of the globe. 



The four prominent steps or stages in the annals of early New 

 Zealand were, firstly, the arrival of the Maoris ; secondly, the discovery 

 of the country by the navigators Vancouver, Malaspina, and Cook ; 

 thirdly, the exploitation of its seas by the sealer and whaler ; fourthly, 

 the initiation of commerce by the mercantile marine. Each of these 

 periods has been responsible for its own particular mammal. 



The first of these, Mus maorium (Kiore maori), in size rather 

 resembling mouse than rat, was at one time an important article of 

 diet amongst the natives. Except, however, that it was in disposition 

 "tame" and "stupid," and that it subsisted according to native state- 

 ment entirely on roots, berries, and woodland fruits, little seems to have 

 been registered concerning its habits. By Colenso, who vainly tried to 



