62 WILD I.IFK IX XK\V ZEALAND. 



and intellectual faculties been more highly developed. But just as 

 some men degrade these faculties to the basest uses and become a 

 menace to the rest of their race, so some dogs onlv a few, it must 

 be admitted go w ild and heroine a menace to their human com- 

 panions and masters. 



It is of interest to remember that when Captain Cook came to 

 New Zealand the Natives had dogs, which they had brought with 

 them from their original homes in Polynesia. Most of the hist. 

 of the migrations of the Maori refer to the fact of their bringing 

 dogs with them, so that they had probably been in the country 

 for some centuries before the date of Cook's visit in 1769. Cro/et. 

 who visited these Islands in 1772, saw these dogs, and described 

 them as follows: "The dogs are a sort of domesticated fox. quite 

 black or white, very low on the legs, straight ears, thick tail, long 

 body, full jaws, but more pointed than that of the fox. and utter- 

 ing the same cry. They do not bark like our dogs. These animals 

 are only fed on fish, and it appears that the savages only raise them 

 for food. Some were taken on board our vessels. lut it vraa 

 impossible to domesticate them like our dogs: they were al\\a\s 

 treacherous, and bit us frequently. They would have been 

 dangerous to keep where poultry was raised or had to he pro- 

 tected: they would destroy them just like true foxes." 



Forster, in his account of Cook's second voyage, writing of the 

 Queen Charlotte Sound Natives in 177.'5, says, "A good many do-s 

 uere observed in their canoes, which they seemed very fond of, and 

 kept tied with a siring round their middle. They were of a rough, 

 long-haired sort, with pricked ears, and much resembled the 

 common shepherd's cur or Count Button's chut/ (/<' lxr<i<r. They 

 \\eiv of different colours, some quite black and other* perfect Iv 

 white. The food which these dogs receive is fish, or the same as 

 their masters live on. who afterward- e:it their tlcsh and einplox 

 the fur in various ornaments and dresses." Later on in the 

 same journal he says. " The officers had ordered their black dog 

 to be killed, and sent to the captain one-half of it. This day 

 (June !>). therefore, we dined for the first time on a leg of it roai 

 which taste. 1 so exactly like mutton that it was absolutely undis 

 I inguishahle. ... In New Zealand and in the tropical isles 

 of the South Sea the dogS ;nv tlic most stupid, dull animals 

 imaginable, and do not seem to have the Iea>t advantage in point 



