WILD LIFE IN NEW ZEALAND. 



PART I. MAMMALIA. 

 CHAPTER I. 



INTRODUCTION. 



IN a laud which 'depends to a very large extent on agricultural 

 and pastoral pursuits and industries some knowledge of the 

 animal and vegetable life of the country should be taught in every 

 school, and the love of Nature in all her varied aspects should be 

 inculcated in every child. The best way of acquiring such know- 

 ledge is by observation, and every child is more or less a naturalist 

 from the start. It has been said that man is a classificatory 

 animal, and it is wonderful how most children begin to collect 

 such objects as interest them, and how, unconsciously, they begin 

 to classify them. 



But, hand-iii-hand with observational work, a certain amount 

 of instruction is very helpful, and if the one can work in har- 

 moniously with the other progress in the knowledge of Nature is 

 greatly facilitated. Books conveying instruction in botany are 

 common enough, but those dealing with the rudiments of zoological 

 work in a form sufficiently attractive to the uninformed reader 

 are by no means numerous. I do not know of any work dealing 

 with the animals which are frequently met with in New Zealand, 

 and in the hope of partly supplying this want I propose to write 

 a few sketches of the wild life of the country, in which I shall 

 attempt to give some account of those which are most common. 

 The late Professor Hutton and Mr. James Drummond, of Christ- 

 church, published some years ago a valuable work entitled 

 " Animals of New Zealand," which should be in every school 



