Relations of the New-Zealand Fauna. 27 



soplodon Hectorx) belong to genera not found elsewhere. None, 

 however, of our Delphiniidaj are confined to New Zealand. 

 Delphinus novce-zealandue inhabits the antarctic seas and 

 perhaps Tasmania; Lagenorhynchus clanculus is found through- 

 out the Pacific Ocean, but not in Australia ; and Orca capen- 

 si'sj a lower jaw of which is in the Auckland Museum, ranges 

 from the Cape of Good Hope through the Southern Ocean 

 to Chili, and is also found in the North Pacific and Tas- 

 mania. The blackfish {Globiocephalus viacrorhynchus) is 

 found in the South Pacific and Japan, but not in Australia. 

 Our Cetacea, therefore, contrary to what might have been ex- 

 pected, show a nearer relation to the Pacific and Antarctic 

 oceans than they do to Australia ; and it is remarkable that 

 no species of porpoise has as yet been described as found in 

 New Zealand, although two inhabit Tasmania. 



The absence of terrestrial Mammalia is one of the chief 

 points of interest in New-Zealand zoology, as it proves that 

 there has been no land communication between this country 

 and Australia since the latter was inhabited by Marsupials ; 

 for I consider that the so-called Maori rat and native dog 

 were both introduced by human agency*. 



Sir George Grey informs me that he sent to the British 

 Museum some grey " Maori rats " which had been caught 

 in the interior of the South Island in 1847 by Mr. Torlesse, 

 and that Dr. Gray had said that they were identical with a 

 rat found in Polynesia, by which he must have meant the 

 black rat [Mus ratius) ; for none of the islands in the Pacific 

 possesses an indigenous rat. Dr. Buller also collected a con- 

 siderable amount of evidence to show that the " kiore-maori " 

 was identical with a rat (now in the Colonial Museum) which 

 he described (Trans. N.-Z. Inst. iii. p. 1) under the name of 

 Mus novce-zealandicBj but which is certainly Mus rattus. Mr. 

 Colenso says (Proc. R. Soc. of Van Diemen's Land, 1851, 

 p. 301), in a letter to R. Gunn, Esq., dated 4th September, 

 1850, that after considerable trouble he had procured two 

 specimens of the native rat, which he describes as " smaller 

 than om- English black rat (J/, rattus), and not unlike it." 

 Against this we have the statement of Dr. Dieffenbach, who 

 says (' New Zealand,' ii. p. 185) that it Avas the English 

 and not the Norway rat that killed off the " kiore-maori." 

 This, I think, must be a mistake, as all the Maoris attri- 



* Captain Cook remarks, in his first voyage, that rats were " so scarce 

 that manv of us never saw them " (Hawliesworth's ' Coll. of Voy.' iii. 

 p. 34;. He makes no mention of their ever being used for food ; and I am 

 not aware of any remains of rate having been as yet found in Maori cooking- 

 places. 



