58 WILD I.IFK IN N1CW ZKAI.AND. 



sol'i leathery pad- to ensure a soft, silent footstep. What 



looks like the knee is really the wrist, and what looks like a baek- 

 \\anl-tunie<l knee in the hind leg is the heel, the true elbow and 

 knee bt-inir almost hidden ly the skin. In all carnivores the canine 

 teeth are relatively very large. All of them have the senses of 

 sight and hearing very well developed. The young are always born 

 in a comparatively helpless condition, and are generally blind for 

 some time after their birth. 



THE CAT. 



There is no record as to the first introduction of cats into New 

 Zealand; but no doubt they were brought here by the very first 

 settlers perhaps earlier even, by the crews of vessels which called 

 at Kororareka and other parts of this country in the very early 

 whaling days. They do not seem to have strayed far from the 

 haunts of men until rabbits began to multiply. Then, when the 

 sheep-farmers found that the capacity of the country for carrying 

 sheep was being seriously reduced by the vast increase of rabbits, 

 they resorted to all sorts of devices to cope with the pest. One 

 method was to purchase cats in the towns, take them out to tin- 

 back country, feed them for a time till they became somewhat 

 habituated to the locality, and then turn them loose. No doubt 

 some died, but most of them became more or less wild, and learned 

 to subsist on the smaller animals of the neighbourhood. Probably 

 native ^round-birds suffered most from their presence. The\ 

 tainly destroyed many young rabbits, but it is also true that t hex- 

 were frequently found living and rearini: ihcir young in hurmw* 

 alongside families of rabbits. They cleared off the rats, which 

 were formerly so common, and they also largely exterminated 

 lixards. Mv son. Dr. Allan Thomson, tells me that in tin- Awatere 

 Valley, in Marlborouirh, rabbit-hunting cats an -n-atly esteemed 

 by the settlers and are believed to be much more etlieient than Si 

 and weasels. They an- only partly wild, as frequently the don 



I their youmj on rabbits and interbreed fively with wild 



living near the homesteads. He observed a cat at Awapiri 



SiiiLT iwo kittens to kill. She would leave the house, and in 



about ten minutes' time would return with a baby rabbit, evidently 



obtained from a stop, When the kittens were very voumj she 



killed the rnbbit and skinned it. A week or two later she would 



