86 THE VALLEY OF [PART I. 



liser Bay, or some other place on the east coast. 

 The introduction of the carnivorous dog and cat 

 into New Zealand has had a curious and fatal effect 

 on the feathered races. On the breaking up of the 

 tribes these animals were dispersed into the forest, 

 which afforded nothing for their support but the 

 birds, whose number has greatly decreased in conse- 

 quence, as can be clearly proved, especially as some 

 such as the rails possess very limited powers of 

 flight, and one class, the apterix, cannot fly at all, for 

 the very sufficient reason that it has no wings. We 

 should have been very glad to have fallen in with 

 some natives, or with some of the quadruped rovers 

 of the forest ; the latter would have given us the 

 means of prolonging our tour, and the former 

 might have shown us the rcvad to some land un- 

 known. We, however, saw neither man nor beast ; 

 and although the natives from the east coast may 

 sometimes wander in this direction from Cook's 

 Straits ; and although it may be true, as I have been 

 told by a native of Hauriri, or Hawke's Bay, that 

 from a range of hills near that bay may be seen the 

 fires of Rauparaha in Kapiti ; yet, from all I have 

 seen in New Zealand, I am convinced that the for- 

 midable pictures of bush-natives which have been 

 drawn are purely the result of imagination. The 

 natives in general are much too civilised and social, 

 and know their own interests too well, to live in a 

 gloomy and inhospitable forest. It is true, indeed, 

 that excursions for surprising and robbing neigh- 



