MAMMALS AND BIRDS. 383 



writes a friend to me ; " the wool grows rapidly, the 

 sheep fatten well, and the ewes breed rapidly, frequently 

 having three at a birth, so that we can by-and-by export 

 wool as well as cotton. In one of the boxes sent to the 

 Exhibition there is some wool of a sheep five months 

 old, born on Wakaya, and the property of Dr. Brower." 

 Cats are now quite common, and the natives have taken 

 to them in order to kill the mice and rats which Eu- 

 ropean vessels have introduced. 



Birds are much more numerous than mammals. I 

 have a list of forty-six different species, among them 

 parroquets, owls, bitterns, teal, hawks, ducks, pigeons, 

 etc. The feathers of some of them are collected for 

 ornamental purposes, and the high value set upon the 

 Kula (Coriphilus solitarius, Latham) has already been 

 noticed. Ducks and pigeons, excellent eating, are very 

 abundant, the former about the rivers, the latter in the 

 woods. The fowls (Toa*) which the natives had were very 

 small, and could scarcely be termed domesticated, in- 

 deed they have become perfectly wild in many districts. 

 Europeans have introduced better kinds, and also tur- 

 keys, but I do not remember seeing any geese. I fancy 

 that the domestic ducks must have come to the islands 

 early in this century from some Spanish ships. 



* Toa is the Fijian form of the word " Moa," applied throughout Poly- 

 nesia to domestic fowls, and by the Maoris to the most gigantic extinct 

 birds (Dinornis sp. plur.) disentombed in New Zealand. The Polynesian 

 term for birds that fly about freely in the air is Manu or Manumanu, and 

 the fact that the New Zealanders did not choose one of these, but the one 

 implying domesticity and want of free locomotion in the air, would seem a 

 proof that the New Zealand Moas were actually seen alive by the Maories, 

 about their premises, as stated in their traditions, and have only become 

 extinct in comparatively recent times. 



