UNGULATA 51 



only four two bulls and two cows, nine months old arrived in 

 New Zealand. They were liberated in 1901 near Hokitika, but appear 

 soon to have separated, as in 1903, 'one cow was in one district, 

 another at the gorge of the Hokitika River, while nothing was known 

 of the bulls. In 1913 the cow at the junction of the Hokitika and 

 Trews rivers was "in splendid condition, and as tame as a kitten." 

 The others seem to have disappeared. In 1910 the Government 

 obtained ten more, and these were liberated on the shores of Dusky 

 Sound. Mr Moorhouse found (in February, 1921) that these deer 

 were in considerable numbers round the Sound. Their food seems to 

 consist of certain mosses, and the tops and ends of punga ferns 

 (Cyathea dealbatd). 



Family BOVIDJE 

 Gnu (Connocheetes gnu) 



Sir George Grey introduced one or more of these quaint animals 

 into Kawau about 1870, but there is apparently no record of what 

 happened to them. 



* Ox (Bos taurus) 



From the earliest days of settlement, cattle were run in large 

 numbers on the open country, seldom seeing men, and running 

 practically wild. They were gathered together by stockmen at certain 

 times of the year in order to brand the calves, castrate the young 

 bulls, and separate marketable animals. Otherwise they ran wild, 

 each herd or mob occupying its own particular area of country, and 

 this they kept to, except in winter, when they roamed into the forest 

 and fed on Panax, Melicytus, and other trees, of which they are very 

 fond. It was inevitable that numbers of them should become truly 

 wild, escaping altogether from the musterers, and getting right away 

 into the back country. Consequently wild cattle have been very 

 abundant in all the back country for the last seventy years. 



Apparently the first recorded introduction of cattle into New 

 Zealand took place at the Bay of Islands, for the Rev. R. Taylor says 

 that Marsden brought them over from New South Wales. This must 

 have been in the twenties of last century. Dr McNab states that on 

 30th March, 1833, John Bell set out from Sydney for Mana Island 

 with ten head of cattle. He adds: 



With the exception of the domestic animals which accompanied the 

 expeditions of Cook and Vancouver, this is the first record of any such 

 having been taken to New Zealand, though it is incredible that sheep, 

 cattle, goats and rabbits were unknown at the shore whaling stations of 

 Preservation, Otago, Cloudy Bay, Queen Charlotte Sound and Kapiti. 



42 



