80 MAMMALIA 



So writes Dr Hocken in his interesting Early History of New Zealand. 



Taylor White states that on the west coast (of the South Island) 

 they came in vast crowds, climbing trees, tent poles and ropes, and 

 ate everything. On the shores of Lake Wakatipu they lived under 

 the dead leaves of the Wild Spaniard. 



Rutland records how: 



in 1856 the district of Collingwood on the western side of Blind Bay was 

 visited by a swarm, and, in 1863, 1 am informed of a swarm on the Shotover, 

 Otago. Repeated swarms occurred in Picton, in 1872, 1878, 1880, 1884, 



and 1888 These rat-swarms invariably take place in spring A few 



of the animals appear in August ; they increase in numbers till November, 

 when all disappear again gradually, as they came. While in a locality dead 

 rats are seen lying about in all directions, on roads, in gardens, and else- 

 where, very few have any marks of violence on their bodies; nor have 

 they died of hunger, since on examination they are generally found fat. 

 In 1884 in Picton, 47 dead rats were found lying together under the floor 

 of the sitting-room (in one house). In another 37 were found dead under 

 the kitchen. The whole town was pervaded with the odour of dead rats. 

 The average weight of full grown specimens is about two ounces. The fur 

 on the upper portion of the body is dark-brown, inclining to black; on 

 the lower portion white or greyish- white. They run awkwardly and slowly 

 on the ground, but run very quickly on the trees. When suddenly startled 

 or pursued they cry out with fear. 



"The extremely few females that occur amongst the countless hordes is 

 a fact that shows that if breeding does take place at all during these periods 

 (of travel), it must be on a very limited scale." They do little damage, their 

 food being green vegetable. . . . Though they enter dwelling-houses and 

 barns, it is evidently not in quest of food, as shown by corn and other 

 eatables being left untouched by them." (Rutland adds) "Among English 

 country people, who have the best opportunity of observing them, it is 

 commonly asserted that in litters of young rats" (? Mus decumanus), the 

 males produced outnumbered the females by about seven to one. 



Meeson describes a plague of these rats in 1884: 



Nelson and Marlborough, in other words the whole of the extreme 

 northern portion of the South Island of New Zealand, is enduring a perfect 

 invasion. Living rats are sneaking in every corner, scuttling across every 

 path ; their dead bodies in various stages of decay, and in many cases more 

 or less mutilated, strew the roads, fields, and gardens, pollute the wells 

 and streams in all directions. Whatever kills the animals does not succeed 

 in materially diminishing their numbers. Young and succulent crops, as 

 of wheat and peas, are so ravaged as to be unfit for and not worth the 

 trouble of cutting and harvesting. A young farmer the other day killed 

 with a stout stick two hundred in a couple of hours in his wheat field. 



Among reasons suggested for the visitation he suggests the pressure 

 of famine: "last summer was very wet, and last winter very cold, 

 the amount of snow lying on the high lands in the interior was very 



