108 WILD LIFE IN NKW ZEALAND. 



Kumont at the present time they aiv common about tin.- bush-line. 

 and in the summer months up to 6,000ft. In I'M).") the Waimarino 

 Society purchased and liberated a number, and protected them for 

 two years. Later on they became so numerous that they were 

 declared to be no longer game, and all restrictions about shooting 

 them were removed. I learn from Mr. K. Phillips Turner. 

 of the New Zealand Forest Department, that they are found all 

 through the volcanic plateau of the North Island from Rotorua to 

 Waiouru. 



In no part of New Zealand have they increased to a greater 

 extent than in South Canterbury, where they became so abundant 

 that a considerable export trade sprang up. mostly from tin- Port 

 of Timaru. Thus the total number of frozen hares exported from 

 New Zealand in 1910 was declared at 10,744, and in 1911 at 

 11,418. The number lias varied in subsequent years, but is still 

 very considerable. It is probable that a good many hares are 

 exported but declared in the Customs returns as rabbits. 



In some parts of New Zealand hares tend to heroine white in 

 the winter season, just as they do in parts of the Old Country, 

 following the same seasonal variations as occur in ferrets, itoata, 

 and other sub-Arctic animals. Several observers state that tl 

 a familiar phenomenon in South Canterbury. 



Tin-: HKIHJKHOI: ( Krintirdix 

 This interest ini: little animal belongs to an order called the 

 Insectivora, not because they are the only mammals which eat 

 insects, hut because the latter creatures, with worms and other 

 "mall fry." constitute the whole, or nearly the whole, of their 

 food. Hedgehogs are small, stoutly-built animals, with very short 

 tails, and the greater part of the hairs on the upper surface are 

 converted into spines. They have the power of rolling theinselv.- 

 into balls, and these spines thus ronsiitute a most powerful defen- 

 sive amour. Tin- ipines are about 1 in. long, and are hard and 

 sharp; they are -revisit in colour, with a dark-brown ..? nearly 

 I. lack ring a little above the middle. The legs are short, so that 

 the animal runs with its belly nearly touching tin- ground, and 

 the feet have five toes. A t'ull-grown hedgehog is about 10 in. 

 Ion IT. When a tame hedgehog is poked on the forehead il puts 



