WILD GOATS. 45 



black-and-white or black-and-tan. I have noticed here (and also 

 on the west coast) that the female has her young in the winter, when 

 food is not plentiful. Why this is so I never could understand." 



Goats are still found wild on the Galloway Station, Central 

 Otago, though not so abundantly as in former years. They live 

 in the high country, and do not come down to the .settlements. 

 Mr. A. Gunn, who managed this large run for many years, tells 

 me that they are of great use to sheep-farmers, as they keep down 

 the "lawyers" (Rubus australis), and thus save the sheep from 

 being entangled. In shooting them, if the wind is coming from 

 their direction, you can smell them before you see them; and a 

 billygoat is always found standing on guard while they are feed- 

 ing. While they are of many colours, black-and-white is the com- 

 monest, though brownish-red, grey, and even occasionally a white 

 one is found. They live in the roughest places they can find. 



Goats are also found in considerable numbers round the south- 

 east corner of the South Island, but whether they have escaped 

 from the settlements about Preservation Inlet or have worked 

 overland from Southland it is not possible to say with certainty. 

 Probably the former is the explanation of their occurrence from 

 Puysegur Point inland. 



The attempts made from time to time to acclimatize goats on 

 the outlying Southern Islands are of interest. Captain Enderby. 

 landed some on Enderby Island in 1850, and Captain Norman 

 landed them on both the Auckland and Enderby Islands in 1865, 

 but none appear to have survived. Dr. Cockayne says, "Two or 

 three were landed on Ewing Island in 1895, but none have been 

 seen recently. On Ocean Island, a very small islet in the Auck- 

 land Group, goats are numerous at the present time, but I have 

 no details as to how they got there." Captain Bollons, of the 

 " Hinemoa," writing me in February, 1916, speaks also of the 

 last-named island, and adds, " Goats have been sent down from time 

 to time to the Auckland Islands since 1890, most of which have 

 either died or been killed off for food by castaways. At the Snares 

 they were liberated about 1889, but soon died off. At Campbell 

 Island some were landed in 1883 and 1890, and several were alive 

 when the main island was taken up for a sheep-run in 1896. At 

 the Antipodes several were liberated between 1886 and 1900. but 

 were either used for food by the castaways or died off." 



