84 WILD LIFE IN NEW ZEALAND. 



running backwards and forwards, and great numbers of them were 

 caught in this manner." It is now almost certain that this native 

 rat was the same species (.I///* exvlans) as is still common in many 

 of the South Sea islands and throughout the Pacific, and it pro- 

 bably came with the original immigrants, the ancestors of the 

 Morioris and Maoris. It is, however, probable that the common 

 Kuropean black rat (.!///* rn'fux) came also into tin- countrv with 

 the various ships which touched at these shores from 1769 onwards. 

 Indeed. Vates, who wrote in IS-'i"). says. " The Natives tell us that 

 rats were introduced in the first ship by Tasman." He is certainly 

 not an authority on the subject, and too much importance need not 

 be attached to his statement; but it is nevertheless interesting. 

 In Cassells Natural History, Dallas, who writes on the Rodentia, 

 " New Zealand at the time of its discovery harboured a rat 

 known as the forest-rat, or Maori rat. which was a favourite 

 article of food with the Natives, and is now almost extinct. It 

 lias been proved by Captain Hutton to be identical with our black 

 rat (.!///.< /-riffiix). and was probably introduced by the ancestors of 

 the Maoris." 



I do not know when this was written, for Messrs. Cassell and Co. 

 take the precaution not to put dates on many of their books. But 

 Hutton, in vol. 20 of the "Transactions of the New Zealand 

 Institute" (1888), speaks of the rats which invaded Picton and the 

 Marlborough Sounds as .!///* nmnrinin, and says, "This rat is 

 certainly different from .l//x hunjiU, from Fiji, and, 1 should 

 think, from M. C&ulanfi." The whole subject has recently been 

 investigated by Oldtield Thomas, who is the greateti living 

 authority in this group, and he is certainly of opinion that the 

 kiore. or Maori rat, was the common Pacific species, M. >. minus. 

 Kndlcss confusion occurs, however, among early writers in Speak- 

 ing of rats and their species, and this must be borne in mind in 

 n-:idiiiL r Hi'' art-mints <,f these animals. 



The Mev. I!. Taylor who is not always, however, a reliable 

 authority says that this Maori rat was in ircm-ral I1K about one- 

 third that of the brown, or Norway, rat. 'Die Maoris used to make 

 elaborate preparations to catch them, and hundreds of them would 

 be captured at one hunting. He says the animal is reported to 

 run only in a straight line, and that the Maoris made special lines 

 of roads in order t> h-ad them into their traps, which were baited 



