Part IV 



Chapter XIII 



INTERACTION OF ENDEMIC AND 

 INTRODUCED FAUNAS 



THE enormous impetus given to Natural History by the publication 

 of Darwin's Origin of Species in 1859 led many of those who were 

 interested in biological studies in New Zealand to give much con- 

 sideration to the relation of his theoretical views to the problems 

 which faced them here. I was among those who came early under 

 the spell. I read with care and avidity every work of Darwin's which 

 bore on the subject of evolution and natural selection, and followed 

 this up by a careful study of contemporary writers, Hooker, Lyell, 

 Huxley, Wallace, Asa Grey, Haeckel and numerous others. As a lad 

 I had some slight knowledge of the British fauna, and had begun to 

 collect the flora under my old teacher of botany, Professor John 

 Hutton Balfour of Edinburgh. I made extensive botanical and zoo- 

 logical collections in many parts of New Zealand from the Bay of 

 Islands to the south of Stewart Island between 1868 and 1892, col- 

 laborating first with that prince of field naturalists, Captain F. W. 

 Hutton, and later with Mr D. Petrie and Professor C. Chilton. At 

 the end of 1882, an injury which effectually lamed me, prevented 

 the prosecution of further field work, but I continued to collect and 

 work on the invertebrate fauna, especially the Crustacea. 



The conviction early grew upon me that here in New Zealand 

 was a field in which the accuracy of Darwin's views in certain direc- 

 tions could be put to the test. The way in which certain species of 

 introduced animals and plants seemed to "run away," as it were, 

 from their recognised specific characters, led to the expectation that 

 new forms would spring up in this country under the altered con- 

 ditions, and that we should here observe the "origin " of new species. 

 I certainly was not alone in this half-expectation. It was somewhat 

 generally, though vaguely, held. Examples were apparently numerous . 

 Rabbits increased at an appalling rate, and appeared to be developing 

 many coloured breeds; small birds especially common sparrows, 

 greenfinches, skylarks, etc. multiplied prodigiously, and we were 



